True Love: A Story about Rose and Dimitri
by hungrycookiemoster
Summary: Updated Summary: This story takes place two years after SK. Dimitri and Rose have decided to visit his family in Russia. This is how Blood Promise should have gone if Dimitri was never turned into a Strigoi. Rose's POV only.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Although I do wish I own these marvelous characters…I do not :(**

**After re-reading my story I noticed a few errors. Therefore, I have decided to re-uploaded the chapters with the errors. **

**Anyways enjoy!  
**

This story takes place two years after Shadow Kiss. Dimitri was never turned into a Strigoi so Blood Promise is nonexistent in this story. Rose and Lissa have graduated and are now living at the court. Being that Rose and Dimitri are considered to be great guardians, the Moroi's and Dhampir's choose to accept their relationship in fear that they may run away together. In the recent years of an on occurring shortage of guardians, the Moroi and Dhampir population can't afford to lose great guardians like Rose and Dimitri. This story is written in Rose's POV. This isn't really a summary but a setup for the story.

The story has not begun quite yet. I wanted to further set the up so the story so that the readers know what is going on. Here are a few paragraphs about what has been happening for the past two years.

After retrieving Eddie and the others who were being held captive by the Strigois, Rose and Dimitri decided to keep their relationship a secret until Rose graduated. They had promised not to become public about their relationship due to the bad attention it would cause until they were away from the school and residing at the court. However that didn't mean they didn't sneak around from time to time.

Rose, along with Eddie, have both been guarding Lissa for the past two years. Being that Dimitri was unable to protect Lissa, due to his conflicting feelings for Rose, Eddie seemed to be a fine replacement. Since Eddie showed how dedicated he was to protecting Lissa in the field experience, the powers that be felt he had proved himself worthy of filling Dimitri's position as the second guardian of Lissa Dragonmir. Since the court is surrounded by wards and is one of the most protected places in the world, guardians don't have to be on guard all the time. Being that Lissa has two guardians, Rose and Eddie don't have to both be on duty at one time. Only one guardian is required to watch over Lissa while at the court. This opportunity allows Rose the freedom to spend time with Dimitri during her free time. Rose and Eddie have made a schedule which involves Rose being on duty four days out of the seven one week and Eddie watching Lissa the remaining three days. To make it fair, Eddie and Rose alternate their guardian duties every other week. Therefore, they each are given the opportunity to have their own time.

Dimitri, on the other hand, decides not to be reassigned to another person after choosing not to protect Lissa. If Dimitri were to be reassigned there is a chance he would have been sent away from the court and ultimately away from Rose. Instead Dimitri has become an extra guard at the court who expects the wards and keeps everyone safe.

At the court Rose and Dimitri own a small two bedroom apartment in which they reside when they're not busy with their guardian duties. The only reason they are allowed to reside in an apartment so close to the Morois and Dhampirs is because they are good guardians and in a way are receiving special treatment for it. The court needs guardians and is willing to ignore how wrong it is for two Dhampirs to have a relationship.

Lissa and Christian have been together for the past two years at the court. At first when Lissa and Christian first moved to the court the queen tried her hardest to break them up. However, Lissa and Christian were able to get past the queens antics and have a stronger relationship today. Christian and his aunt Tasha have been helping Moroi's learn how to defend themselves and aide their guardians in battles with Strigoi.

**Again this is just a preview chapter that fills you in on what has been going on for the past two years. The next chapter is where the story starts. **


	2. Chapter 2

****Update 7/18/10 After re-reading this chapter I must admit…I'm totally embarrassed. I wrote this chapter about 8 months ago and it shows (It is safe to say my writing has improved dramatically). I truly apologize for the 'awkward' writing at some points. I tried to fix it up the worst parts without completely alternating the story. Anyways I hope you enjoy!****

I had set my cell phone alarm on vibrate so that I would be woken up without disturbing my beloved. After hitting the snooze button two times, I finally decided I needed to awake up. It was morning but I could tell it was still really early in the morning due to my inability to get out of bed. However I needed to wake up because today wasn't just any ordinary morning but the morning of Dimitri's birthday. This morning I decided to wake up before Dimitri so that I could make him some birthday breakfast in bed. Dimitri like always was snoring away beside me with his arms wrapped around me. Dimitri was very protective of me and liked to wrap me in his arms every night. Even though my job was to protect others, I still liked the feeling of having someone protecting me for exchange. Since Dimtri had entangled our bodies together, I had to slowly part our bodies so that I didn't wake him up. If he woke up now his birthday breakfast surprised would be ruined so I had to be sure to not disturb his sleep. After about ten minutes of trying to slowly sneak out of bed, I finally made it without waking up my birthday boy. Once I was out of the bed I quickly put on some sweat pants and then I walked to the kitchen.

Once inside the kitchen, I got started on making Dimitri's favorite breakfast which was sunny side up eggs and wheat toast with grape jelly and a cup of apple juice. Due to our busy schedules we rarely ever ate breakfast together. Dimitri would wake up early and make his own breakfast by the time I got out of bed. Dimitri was a great cook. I guess being raised in a house full of women really taught him how to find his way around the kitchen. I on the other hand, would never considered myself the best cook in the world by any standards but eggs, toast and a cup of apple juice was something I could do. Once I finished the meal, I heard Dimitri's alarm clock go off so I placed the breakfast on a meal tray and I headed into the main bedroom to deliver my love his breakfast.

As I entered our bedroom, I saw that Dimitri was sitting up in bed leaning over towards the buzzing alarm clock about to turn it off. Walking in the room with my best smile spread across my face I stated cheerfully, "Happy Birthday Dimitri! I made a surprise birthday breakfast this morning for my favorite little guardian."

Dimitri by no means was anything but little. At the height of 6"7, his long legs barley even fit in the bed. Not to mention that when he stood up I don't think I have ever met a person that didn't have to look up to him when trying to have a conversation. But still he was my cute little guardian no matter what.

At the sight of my happy attitude and homemade food put a smile on Dimitri's face. Back at high school Dimitri rarely smiled and I took delight in knowing every time I cause him to even smirk. Even after two years of being in a relationship I still have pride in every smile I caused him to have and today was no different.

As I set the tray down on his lap he pulled me into a kiss. Dimitri was a great kisser. Kissing him always made me feel like a pathetic drooling school girl who was just kissed by the hottest guy in school. When I felt Dimitri's hands slide down my waist and slowly up the front of my shirt I had a feeling this kiss would lead to other things fast so I decided to break it off so that Dimitri could eat his birthday breakfast. The look on Dimitri's face when I pulled away showed that he was very disappointed by my actions. However, I woke up early to make him this meal and he would just have to wait until later for the present he seemed to want right now. As I untangled myself from his arms I gave him one more final kiss before sliding onto the spot next to him on the bed to watch him eat the food.

"I woke up especially early to make you this marvelous breakfast. I think you better eat it before my hard work gets cold."

"Of course I can't start my birthday morning without eating something. Thank you Rose for the breakfast." He then leaned over a kissed my forehead then begun to eat his breakfast.

I could tell he felt uncomfortable with me leaning over his shoulder watching for any sign of dislike for the food I prepared so I decided this was a good time to shower and start the day. "Well I'm taking a shower now. It won't be long I just need to wake myself up a bit. I'm not use to waking up so early."

Dimitri, who always seemed to be an early bird, found pleasure in my disgust for the mornings and waking up. "Rose I know how hard it is for you to wake up so early" He said smiling and shaking his head side to side. "Would you like me to assist you in the shower to help wake you up?"

"If you assist me in the shower then the plans I have for today will never happen" I said sadly. If this was any other day then I would have not declined but I had a major surprise that involved us being on time and him joining me in the shower would have definitely set us off the time schedule.

The word "plans" seemed to spark his curiosity as I knew it would. I hadn't planned on letting him on the little secret I had in stored for him just yet but I guess now was just as good a time as any. "While I'm in the shower I think you should call your mother. I bet she would love to hear from you today on your birthday." Once I had placed the first phase of my plan in action, I then hopped out of bed and headed for the shower.

**Ok this is the real first chapter. Please leave me some sort of response. I do enjoy positive responses because they will only encourage me to write this story faster. However negative responses will help me understand what I'm doing wrong in regards to this story.**


	3. Chapter 3

****Update 7/18/10 Again I'm horrified by my writing style. Please ignore the 'awkward' writing moments. Is it me or does everyone cringe at the sight of old chapters?**

**I had added a conversation between Dimitri and his mother originally but choose not to add it so this is why the chapter is so short. **

While I was in the shower I thought about the plans I had conjured up for today. About a month ago, I overheard Dimitri talking to his family about how much he missed them. It had been about five years since Dimitri saw his family last. I had been on the verge of panicking on what birthday gift I should get Dimitri, since he seems to want nothing, when this particular phone call between him and his family gave me the idea for the perfect gift. This year, I would reunite Dimitri with his family. I had never met Dimitri's family due to my busy schedule with Lissa. On the other hand, Dimitri never once brought up the notion of visiting his family. I always got the feel that Dimitri wanted to see his family but of course could never bring himself to leave me behind. Knowing my situation with Lissa, Dimitri would never force me to leave her so that we could go to Russia and meet his family.

The solution to this issue was in the form of my mother who would be taking a trip to the court in the next month and would be staying here for a little while on some sort of business. After the attack on St. Vladimir, my mother Janine and I had grown closer. Even though she still lived far away from me, she still tried to call me often. Janine loved Lissa and I believed she would have no issue watching over her while I went to Russia with Dimitri. Lissa would of course panic without me being here but I know she would feel more relaxed if my "super guardian mother" was here with her. I felt bad for leaving Lissa but I knew that Dimitri deserved to see his family. He made the decision to stay here at the court with me and has been there for me through every problem I had. Dimitri deserved to see his family and I was going to make it happen.

**Please Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

****Update I have re-uploaded this chapter and fixed a few errors.**

**Enjoy!**

Instead of telling Dimitri myself about the surprise trip we were about to take, I left it to his mother. When I called her a month ago she was so excited at the prospect of seeing Dimitri again. She seemed so loving on the phone when we talked that I couldn't wait to meet her.

Just as I was praising myself for my good hearted plan, I heard the bathroom door fly open. Dimitri flew into the bathroom and pulled the shower curtain to the side to reveal himself to me. He jumped into the shower with his clothing on and began hugging and kissing me. If I had any doubts about whether he enjoyed my little gift, they were immediately forgotten. He was beaming with excitement. Again, if we were going to stay on track today, then being in the shower together was a dangerous situation.

"I'm glad… you enjoyed your…. surprised but if we're… going to make our… plane, I need to start… getting ready and… you need to shower" I said between Dimitri's kisses. Eventually, Dimitri reluctantly agreed to let me leave the shower so I could prepare for our trip.

I had decided a month ago that we were going to leave for Russia on the day of Dimitri's birthday. In order to accomplish this I had secretly booked a plane and train ride. It just so happens that there were no direct flights that would take us from the court straight to the village of Baia. Therefore, we would land in Saint Petersburg tonight and tomorrow morning we would take a train to Moscow. Once in Moscow, I had rented a car so that we could drive the rest of the way to Baia. I had never been to Russia so I didn't know what to expect, but I didn't want the Belikov family to be carting us around every place we wanted to go during our visit. For that reason, I felt a vehicle of our own would be useful.

At first I decided to only stay in Russia for about a week or two but after speaking to Dimitri's mother, I found out that his sister Sonya was pregnant and was due to give birth three weeks after Dimitri's birthday. Since this is the case I felt we should stay a bit longer so that Dimitri would be there for his new niece/nephew's arrival.

While I was in Russia, I asked my mother to temporary take over my position as Lissa's guardian while I was away. Of course Eddie would be staying here and continuing his duties as her second guardian. Eddie and my mother would alternate the guardian duties as he and I did. One week Eddie would work four days out of the seven while my mother worked the remaining three days and they would of course alternate to make it fair.

I had mostly packed for our departure to Russia in secret. Every time Dimitri left the apartment in the morning, I would pack a few of my things and other objects I felt were needed. However, even though I tried to be discrete about packing, Dimitri seemed to notice things were disappearing so I had to lie and make up a story about rearranging the apartment. It was fortunate that this past week I was able to get some serious packing done since Tasha Ozera, who arrived at the court to hold a Moroi training camp with her nephew Christian, asked Dimitri to assist her in giving pointers on how the Moroi's should defend themselves from the Strigois. This kept Dimitri out of the apartment so I could pack both our stuff easily. It also helped that Dimitri was so exhausted from practice fighting with Tasha and the Morioi's that he didn't seem to notice the things I packed. I'm glad I choose to pack early because now all Dimitri needs to do is load up the taxi and then we'll be off to the airport to catch our flight.

**Please Review!**

**Thank you**


	5. Chapter 5

I had just about finished straightening my hair when Dimitri walked in the bedroom in a towel. I could see on his face that he was still beaming about the surprise trip to see his family.

"I must say when my mother told me about this surprise trip you both have been planning for a month, I was shocked. Where did you find the time to do it?"

"Believe me it was not an easily thing. I have never met someone so perceptive. I thought you figured it out like ten times." To say Dimitri was perceptive would be an understatement. He seems to notice everything. I guess that is what makes him a great guardian.

"Believe me I was surprised. I can't believe you're going to meet my family tomorrow. They have wanted to meet you for a long time. I know how hard it must be for you to leave Lissa behind and I appreciate you willing to do this for me but I can't ask you to leave Lissa." I could see it in his eyes that he felt guilty about being excited for me to see his family because it would mean my separation from Lissa for awhile. Dimitri always put me ahead of his own needs and it wasn't fair to him.

I got up from the chair in front of the mirror I was sitting at, while I was doing my makeup and straightening my hair, and walked over to where Dimitri was standing in the door way. "She will be fine. Yes, Lissa is nervous about me leaving her but my mother will be here. Dimitri you're always there for me when I need you and you never ask for anything in return." I could see that he was still feeling guilty so I decided to change the mood. "Especially I'm under the impression that Russia is an arctic wasteland until proven otherwise." As soon as I saw him take a deep breath and roll his eyes at me I knew I was successful in relinquishing his guilt.

"Rose how many times do I have to tell you that Russia is beautiful and definitely not an 'arctic wasteland' you seem to think it is. I think you'll actually be surprised by what you see when we arrive there."

"Yep, I bet" I said sarcastically. "Now get dress because it's almost time to leave." At first I thought he was going to protest to me ordering him around but instead he begun getting dressed.

I then remembered that I promised Lissa I would call her before leaving for the airport. When I finally found my phone in the kitchen I dialed Lissa's number. Since it went straight to Lissa's voicemail I decided to leave her a message. _Hey Lissa, it's Rose I just wanted to let you know that the taxi is almost here and we'll be heading to the airport soon to board our plane. I'll call you in a few hours when we have landed in Saint Petersburg. Okay bye I love you._ Lissa was probably in the shower so when she got out my message would be waiting for her. At first she was very reluctant about me leaving for a month but I assured her it would be fine. I had promised I would call her everyday that I was away and would even bring my laptop so we could video chat. True, she would be nervous the first couple days but she would be fine soon after. This was the first time we would be apart for some time. However, it would be just a month and she'll be well protected so there really wouldn't be a problem.

However it was weird that she would be taking a shower now when I told her I would call. Maybe I should take a look at what she is up to just to make sure she is okay. Lissa hated when I went into her mind so I promised I would only do it during emergency situations. Although this would probably wasn't an 'emergency situation,' I decided to make sure. When I entered her mind I felt a rush of emotions. These emotions felt good. Too good which meant Lissa was with Christian and that also explained the reason for why she couldn't answer the phone. It also meant that I needed to leave her mind immediately before I saw something I didn't want to.

It was the ringing of my phone that brought me out of Lissa's mind and untimely saved me from enduring the activities she was performing with Christian. The person on the phone was the taxi driver who had arrived and was waiting outside for us. "Dimitri? That was the taxi driver on the phone. He has arrived and is waiting for us to bring the luggage down."

When Dimitri came into the kitchen, he was wearing a white tee shirt that fit the lean muscles of his body and jeans with his hair pulled back into a ponytail. It was times like this that always reminded me how lucky I was to have Dimitri. Even after being together for so long I was still amazed by how gorgeous he was.

"You look very sexy Dimitri. Too bad we have to leave right now because I would definitely like to bring you back in the room" I said seductively.

"Is that so?" Dimitri said smiling before walking over to wrap me in his arms. "I don't think the taxi driver would like it if we kept him waiting."

"Alright" I said reluctantly making Dimitri's smile grow more. "So do you need help carrying the luggage down?"

"Nope, I got it. Thank you for offering" Dimitri said before unwrapping himself from my entangling arms.

As I watched Dimitri carry the luggage to the taxi, I suddenly became afraid of what his family would think of me. This past month I was so busy planning out this little vacation that I never stopped to think about what it would really be like to meet them. Dimitri had warned me that his grandmother was very protective when it came to his family. In addition, I should expect that she would probably be putting me through many test before she accepted me. On the other hand, I never once thought of how his mother and sisters would react to me. Usually I never cared about what others thought about me. However, this was not one of those moments. I very much cared about how Dimitri's family would react to me.

I was so worried in though that I hadn't even realized Dimitri was calling my name until he had to come over and give me a little nudge.

"Are you okay? I have been calling your name for the past minute" Dimitri said looking at me concerned.

"No I'm fine. I was just lost in thought."

Dimitri took a deep breath. "If you're having second thoughts about leaving Lissa, we don't have to go."

I was starting to get mad at myself. Today was Dimitri's day and once again I was making him feel bad for wanting to see his family. "No it is not that. I know Lissa will be fine. I'm actually worried about something totally ridiculous that is not even worth mentioning so if you're done loading up the taxi we could leave now.

As I moved to enter the taxi, Dimitri grabbed my arm. "Rose if something is bothering you, please tell me. I don't like it when you keep secrets."

"I know but like I said it's ridiculous and not worth mentioning."

"Please tell me what is bothering you Roza." The name 'Roza' was the nickname Dimitri gave me back at high school. It was how my name was pronounced in Russian and Dimitri rarely called me it.

I took a deep breath and reluctantly said, "I'm afraid your family won't like me." After stating my recent worse fears, I closed my eyes and waited for Dimitri's response.

I felt Dimitri wrap his arms around me. "Is that what you're worried about? Of course they will like you. Rose you're a very special girl and I'm so honored to be with you. I know for a fact they will love you because I love you." With my eyes still closed I felt Dimitri's lips touch mine. After a couple moments he pulled away and laughed which I didn't expect so I opened my eyes. "Actually Rose maybe my grandmother won't love you at first. She'll probably drive you insane to be truthful. I have said it before but I'll say again, my grandmother is very protective of my family and you should expect her to give you a hard time. "Dimitri said. He then began laughing to himself like there was some sort of inside joke he wasn't letting me in on.

Dimitri then opened the taxi door for me and we both slid into the back seat. As the taxi drove to the airport, I looked out the taxi window thinking about the antics Dimitri's grandmother might put me through and hoping Dimtri's family would accept me.

**Tell me how you like the story so far.**


	6. Chapter 7

**I have never been to a Russia so I'm only guessing how it would be. **

When the plane finally hit the run way in Saint Petersburg, I nearly jumped out of my seat in anticipation. To say the plane ride to Saint Petersburg was long would be an understatement. The plane ride to Saint Petersburg was about 17 hours long. That meant 17 hours of nothing but sky, babies crying, people snoring and of course ghost. The ability to see ghost was just one of the many side effects associated with being shadow kissed. Since the wards used at the court successfully blocked every supernatural thing from passing through, I was able to forget my abnormalities. However, being on an airplane, away from the protection of the wards, there was nothing to keep the ghost away from me. I had learned a couple years ago, when I was trying to overcome the ghost issue, that if I ignored the ghost they would become bored of not being noticed and move on. To assist me in my attempts to ignore the ghost was my brand new iPod. I figured as long as I was paying attention to the music, my mind would have no time to focus on the ghost issue. Although the music kept me from focusing on the ghost, it didn't relax my nerves. Every hour that past meant I was closer to meeting Dimitri's family.

According to Dimitri I went to the bathroom 30 times throughout the airplane ride. When we first boarded the plane I had the window seat. However after the eighteenth time of asking Dimitri to move so I could use the bathroom, I returned to my seat to see that Dimitri had sentenced me to the outside chair. I didn't mind the outside chair as much since the ghost seemed to appear in the window. However, I was disappointed that I wasn't able to the city of Saint Petersburg when we landed.

By the time the flight attendant finally said it was time to unbuckle our seatbelts and exit, I, having already "illegally" gathered my stuff while we were landing, grabbed Dimitri and then raced to the exit.

The airport in Saint Petersburg was nothing I have ever seen before. Aside of everything being written in Russian, it was huge. Although Dimitri had told me on the airplane that the airport in Saint Petersburg had a mall built off of it, I never really pictured it being this big. This also made me wonder why a mall even needed to be in an airport.

"Dimitri, I think we should grab our bags…but….um…darn it everything is in Russian...how am I suppose to know where to go" I said sighing in frustration. "Shouldn't they have English translations?" I said turning around to face Dimitri who was two feet behind me.

I must have had a funny look on my face because Dimitri was smiling at me. "Out of your comfort zone huh?" "You look so cute right now…so vulnerable…it is not something I use to seeing everyday that is for sure." Then Dimitri grabbed my hand to lead me in the direction we were supposed to go. "Don't worry babe, I will help you find your way through the big foreign airport." He said jokingly which prompted me to fake punch him with my other hand.

"Watch yourself Belikova. As a matter of fact I know where I'm going." I said letting go of Dimitri's hand and walking about 8 feet before becoming lost again. I then took a deep breath and turned around toward him knowing that he would be laughing at me.

To my surprise he was still standing where I had let go of his hand and was looking at as though I was something to be studied. He then walked up to me, set our carryon bags on the floor and grabbed my face with both of his hands. "I understand why you became defensive back there. I took the joking too far didn't I?" When I didn't say anything, Dimitri continued. "I was right back there about you being vulnerable. Instead of making fun of you, I should have been more understanding. I apologize."

At first I had no idea what Dimitri was talking about. Then I remember how angry I had become when he started joking with me which is why I had a "Rose moment" and sulked off briefly. True, Dimitri did make fun of me but we always joked around with one another and I had never stormed off before. Why was this time so different? Maybe Dimitri was right about me feeling vulnerable.

It was the feeling of Dimitri thumb across my bottom lip that brought me back to reality. When I looked into Dimitri's eyes, I realized he was still waiting for me to reply to his apology.

"It wasn't you. I really have no idea why I reacted that way. I suppose I'm just edgy about being out of my comfort zone like you said. Let's just forget about it." I said giving him my best smile. Dimitri then kissed my forehead, looked at me one last time to see if I was okay, then picked up the belongs off the floor.

"I'm going to go grab a cart for our luggage. Will you be okay here by yourself?" He said looking at me.

I took a deep breath, rolled my eyes at him and said, "If you mean will I get lost in the 10-15minutes you are gone then no I will be fine. I'm going to go over there." I said pointing to an area with benches. "And I will sit there until you have returned."

I rarely ever gave Dimitri the "Rose attitude" but I felt weird right now. For a second Dimitri hesitated not really sure how to take my unusual response but must have thought I would be okay nonetheless and walked away.

As soon as Dimitri walked away, I realized that this airport was "human friendly." A "human friendly" place is somewhere Dhampirs, Moroi and humans are able to co-exist with one other. However, the word "coexist" really meant as long as the Dhampirs and Moroi didn't reveal themselves to the humans then everything would be okay. What I found to be strange was that I saw no ghost which meant there were wards. Typically human friendly places in America had no wards. The powers that be felt that if a Moroi or a Dhmapir went to these locations then they were on their own. I always felt that the reason why no wards were put up in these locations was to prevent contact with the humans since most Morio and Dhampirs didn't like to go to places that were wardless. The fact that their wards at this airport were not a bad thing by any means since it meant I would be ghost free.

Since I had time to waste until Dimitri returned, I decided to call Lissa. After about seven rings, Lissa finally answered the phone.

"Hello"

"Hey Lissa it's Rose. I wanted to let you know that I have arrived in Saint Petersburg."

"Oh yeah. How was your plane ride"

"It was extremely long! I went to the bathroom 30 times."

"Oh my! What did Dimitri say about that?"

"I lost the window seat." I said in the best sad voice I could come up with.

I heard Lissa laughing through the phone. "Yeah I bet. I'm surprised he didn't just tie to the seat."

Since she was in a "joking" mood, I decided to change the subject. "I called you before I left. Did you receive my message?"

"Yeah I did. I'm sorry I was unable to answer the phone…um…I was…um…eating…yeah I was eating,"

I didn't need to relay on my connection with Lissa to know when she was lying. Lissa was the worst liar I have ever met.

I decided to push her a bit farther. "You were eating? Wow it must have been the must been the best meal ever since you were unable to answer you best friend's phone call. What did you have for breakfast?"

"I had…um…eggs…"

"Did Christian like your eggs?" I said trying to hide my laughter.

And then she knew. "You were in my head!"

"I thought it was an emergency situation so I decided to check. Believe me I wish I didn't." I said trying to sound horrified. I knew how much Lissa hated when I entered her mind. I also understood how embarrassed she must feel so I changed the subject once again.

"What are your plans for today?"

"Your mom wants to take me out to lunch to talk about her guardian rules."

"Wow…I could only imagine what they are."

"Yeah but since your mom is being my guardian as a favor, I'm going to follow her rules. By the way, are you still planning on staying for a month?"

I had been through this conversation with Lissa a lot while I was planning the trip to Russia. I could tell this time would be no different. "Lissa, this separation is not a bad thing. You need to learn to be comfortable with other guardians. As a guardian, there is always a chance I may be overwhelmed by a Strigoi one day. I need you to be prepared if that happens. This temporary situation is like a test to see how you will go on without me."

"Rose, I don't understand why you talk like that. You will never be killed by a Strigoi. We live at the court."

"When you graduate for college, we will leave the court…"

"Well then we will remain here forever."

I could tell this conversation was going nowhere. Lissa didn't want to believe anything could happen to me. Practically because I always had a feeling that if I did die, she wouldn't be able to overcome it so easily. "Lissa I'm going to let you go now. I will call you tomorrow. Bye Lissa. Take care of Christian okay."

"Ugh. Goodbye Rose."

As soon as I was off the phone with Lissa, I decided to walk over to a place that appeared to be a souvenir shop. I was becoming restless waiting for Dimitri to return and I had caught sight of a cute black top in the window of the souvenir shop that I knew Lissa would love. As I was walking over to the shop I felt someone come up behind me. As my natural guardian instinct kicked in, I turned around but not quick enough. Before I could react, a set of strong and lean arms grabbed a hold of my waist.

"Now where do you think you're going?" Dimitri said breathing into my hair which sent shivers throughout my body.

"I was on my way to the souvenir shop to pick something out for Lissa. Where the heck did you come from?" I said turning in his arms to face him. "Not that I didn't know you were behind me the entire time."

"Huh…is that so?" Dimitri said smiling.

"Yep…but I thought I would let you think you caught me off guard."I said

Dimitri's smile grew. "You seem to be in a better mood now."

"Yes I am. Maybe I could show you how much my mood has changed when we arrive at the hotel. You still haven't received your birthday loooovvviiinnn." I whispered in his ear making sure to emphasize the last word.

Dimitri seemed to appear shocked at my response but then whispered in my ear. "Miss. Hathaway you always keep me guessing." Dimitiri then looked at the souvenir shop I was planning on shopping at and stated. "Now I think it is time we leave the airport. There are plenty of other souvenir shops. Actually I remember one of the best shops is at our hotel." He said giving me a wink. And with that, Dimitri took a hold of my hand and we both made our way to the exit of the airport pulling the luggage cart behind us.

**Finally an update after so long. Tell me how you like it please. I welcome criticism because it will only make me a better writer. **

**Thank you.**


	7. Chapter 8

**I have no idea if I'm allowed to swear in a T rated fan fiction so it will be marked as **.**

When we finally reached the hotel that had a Russian name and was therefore out of my vocabulary, we received the keys to our room, which was on the tenth floor, and made our way to our room.

Once we arrived at our room, I was surprised to see that our luggage had been set in front of the hotel door.

"How did our luggage get here so fast?" I said looking at Dimitri.

"Magic." Dimitri said laughing which resulted in me rolling my eyes at him.

When Dimitri opened the hotel door, I walked in and was amazed to see a kitchen. When I had booked this hotel, I had no idea it would have a built in kitchen so this was a quite a surprise. When I looked in the bathroom, I was also surprised to see a huge bathtub. The huge bathtub, again, was something I didn't plan on having when I booked the room but I would definitely make sure I would put it to good use later.

By the time I finally snapped of my "huge bathtub and the possibilities trace," I noticed that Dimitri had brought the luggage inside the room all by himself. At first I was shocked that I hadn't noticed him passing the bathroom with the huge suitcases. However, this was Dimitri, who tried to be extremely perfect in everything he did. And bringing luggage into a room without hitting the walls or scarping the ground would definitely not be out of his element. This was just one of the many characteristics he possessed that contributed in making him such a great guardian.

"You never cease to amaze me you know that?" I said walking over to him. "You could have asked for help."

"It seemed like you were to busy looking at the room. I didn't want to disturb you." Dimitri said closing the gap between us by wrapping his arms around my waist and bringing me closer to him.

"Well…" Was all I was able to say before Dimitri kissed me. Dimitri's kisses were always so amazing. They could make me forget about the world and my worries.

As the kiss grew more passionate, I found myself being pushed towards the king size bed that was behind me. Once my legs hit the bed, I broke away from our kiss to let us fall onto the bed. When we landed on the bed, Dimitri was on top of me. When I reached up to kiss Dimitri, he pulled away.

"You're so beautiful Rose. How was I so lucky to end up with you. " Dimitri said glazing into my eyes lovingly.

Now don't get me wrong. I would want nothing more than to hear Dimitri profess his love for me but after a long trip, this was not the time. So when Dimitri was finally done speaking, I kissed him.

This kiss by no means was gentle. But then again during these types of moments I rarely ever desired a gentle kiss. As the kiss became more heated, I felt Dimitri entangle one of his hands into my hair. I also felt Dimitri's other hand beginning to unbutton the buttons on the front of my shirt. When all of the buttons on the front of my shirt were unbuttoned, Dimitri's mouth moved from my mouth to my neck, while the hand that was unbuttoning my shirt moved up the side of my stomach.

And then my cell phone rang.

"Just ignore it. I will call them back later." I said annoyed by the interruption. Dimitri who was also unhappy by the interruption continued where he left off ignoring the phone.

When my cell phone was done ringing, Dimitri's phone began ringing. From the ringtone, we could both tell it was his mother.

When I felt Dimitri sigh into my neck, I knew he couldn't ignore the phone call. "I told her I would call her when we arrived at our hotel. I forgot to call her. She will start to worry if I don't answer the phone. I'm sorry." He said giving me a remorseful look. "It won't be long, I promise…then we can pick up where we left off." Dimitri said before he kissed me and then went to retrieve his phone.

While Dimitri was on the phone with his mother, I rebuttoned my shirt and decided to check out the balcony. The temperature had decreased since we arrived at the hotel, but the cold air felt good after my heated moment with Dimitri. As I was enjoying the breeze, I look at the building below me and decided that I really wanted to go sightseeing. It was still early, and after the cell phone interruption, I wasn't really in the mood anymore to continue where Dimitri and I had left off.

When I returned to the room from the balcony, Dimitri was still talking to his mother on the phone but he looked up when he saw me enter the room.

"Let's go sightseeing!" I said excitedly. "I'm going to go change my clothes." I said dragging the suit case with my clothing inside in the bathroom.

After contemplating for 10 minutes on what I wanted to wear, I finally decided on wearing the black sundress that Lissa had brought for me recently along with my leather jacket. As I was gathering my clothing off the floor, I heard Dimitri knock on the bathroom door, which meant that he was letting me know he was off the phone now. Before exiting the bathroom, I took one last look in the mirror and decided that I looked like a bada**. When I opened the door, the look on Dimitri's face when he saw me proved that he too agreed that tonight I would go out sightseeing bada** style.

"You look…amazing."

"Why thank you." I said giving him a thank you bow.

Dimitri smile at my gesture but then said "I let my mother know that we will probably be arriving late tomorrow and that I will call her tomorrow morning when we wake up."

"Okie dokie. Now are you ready to do some sightseeing?"

"Of course. Actually there is this place I really want to show you. I think you will be surprised by what you see."

"Oh boy…I could only imagine what that means." I said giving him a fake worried look. "Maybe I should have made sure there weren't any western tourist attraction around here before I booked the hotel."

After hearing my comment, Dimitri let out a laugh which made me smile in approval. Since Dimitri rarely ever laughed, I always took great pride in putting a smile on his face.

"Oh no! Not a western town." Dimitri stated in mock horror as we were exiting the hotel room. "You know all I hear from you is all this criticism about the western novels I read. But if you ever read one of these books, I think you may find yourself surprised on how much you would enjoy them."

"Oh I bet." I said rolling my eyes at Dimitri, which caused him to grab one of my hands and kiss it affectionately.

"You're so funny. Now let us go see the town." He said letting the hand he had been kissing drop to our sides but still keeping my hand entangled in his. And with that we made our way out of the hotel and onto the streets of Saint Petersburg.

**Thank you for reviewing my story. I always love to hear what people think of my story. **


	8. Chapter 9

**Yey! New Chapter...**

**I posted this before without really checking it over...and upon rereading my story after posting it, I was horrified but how many mistakes I made. Here is take two. **

**Also, I recieved a couple comments after posting this chapter the first time... I hope none of them will be deleted after re-posting this. I would never intentionally delete someone's review. This is because whether it was a postive or negative review, each is their own opinion and therefore something to be valued. **

**Okay. I'm done with my rant now...to the redo chapter...**

After touring the city and taking random pictures for about one hour, Dimitri and I finally arrived at a restaurant. Dimitri explained to me that the restaurant was owned by a Moroi family. From the outside it looked like an ordinary restaurant, like the ones I seen for the past hour. The fact that the restaurant was so ordinary on the outside was probably to keep humans from wanting to eat there. After centuries of living far away from humans, Moroi and Dhampirs tended to keep to themselves. The inside of the restaurant was a completely different story. The place was absolutely beautiful. The walls were painted in royal blue and there were draped white curtains over the windows and a bunch of Russian writing. And for some reason the thought of eating here made me feel like a royal person.

When we were finally able to be seated, I picked up the menu to find that it was completely written in Russian. Therefore, Dimitri had to explain the menu to me.

When the waiter arrived, wanting to show Dimtri that I could order for myself, I ordered the Endivi E Grusha Salat for an appetizer and the Kotlety Po Kievski for the main entrée. However, after announcing my order to the waiter, I noticed that Dimitri was struggling to hold back his laughter. This meant that I had messed the order up, which as a result made me embarrassed so I shushed Dimitri when he tried to fix the order for me. This was because I didn't want the waiter to think that I was incapable of ordering off a menu. After the waiter left, I suddenly regretted not allowing Dimitri to fix my order. Now, I had no idea what the waiter was going to bring me.

It would appear that Dimitri must have sensed my fear because he took a hold of my hand and said, "Don't worry, he understood what you ordered. "

"Are you sure because I misspronounced everything?"

"No you were perfect. Russian isn't a language you are use to speaking. How are you supposed to know how to pronounce things the right way?" He said caressing my hand lovingly. When I didn't say anything he continued. "I don't understand why you didn't just let me fix your order for you."

"Because I would like to return to this restaurant some day and I don't want the people here thinking I'm dumb."

"Ooooh…so you were trying to sound like you knew what you were ordering? So the waiter would just think you were mispronouncing words on purpose." Dimitri said smiling.

I didn't want to admit it but Dimitri was right but I wasn't ready to back down quite yet. "Hey, you call it mispronouncing words. . . I call it a different accent." I said as a matter-of-factly.

This made Dimitri's smile grow even bigger. "Okay, okay, a different accent, I buy it." Dimitri said leaning over the table to kiss my hand he had been caressing.

Just as I was about to gloat about out witting him, the appetizers we order had arrived. And despite my previous worries, the waiter had known what I was talking about and brought me the right order.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------After the meal--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When we were done with our wonderful meals, we paid the check and exited the restaurant.

"Did you enjoy your meal?" Dimitri asked me.

"It was different. Much better than I imagined." I said giving a shrug.

"What did you imagine?" Dimitri said curiously.

"I don't know…maybe that it would taste Russian."

"What do you think Russian taste like?" Dimitri said smiling at me while we walked down the street.

"Um…hmm…I don't know how to explain it. I guess just different than American food." I said pondering how to explain the taste of the food I had just eaten. "I was surprised it was actually good. I liked the food a lot. Did you enjoy your meal?"

"Yeah it was really good. My mother makes something similar. I must admit that as much as I enjoyed my meal here, my mother's is better." Dimitri said.

"So she is a good cook huh…well I guess I figured it since your good in the kitchen. I hope while I'm there visiting maybe she could teach me how to make the foods you like."

"She probably will." Dimitri said before giving me a long look. "I could picture you now…cooking me dinner and waiting on me."Dimitri said jokingly.

"Ha…ha…sorry Belivok but I don't think I'm the housewife type." I said. "I will make the food, but you will definitely be getting off your butt and serving it to yourself."

"Alright, alright." Dimitri said waving his hands in front of him like he was announcing a truce. "Alright, I will serve myself….but do I at least get a foot massage from you after a long day." Dimitri said jokingly.

"Hmm…I think your taking the old western movies to serious now."

Dimitri laughed. "You always told me to watch more TV so that I could 'Americanize' myself more."

"Well I think now your becoming too accustomed to American beliefs especially the 'sexist' ones." I said emphasizing the word 'sexist.'

"Hmm well I don't know if I like the word 'sexist'...but it is close to a word I personally do like." Dimitri said laughing and reaching over to hold my hand.

"I bet you do." I said jokingly. "Does that mean you want to turn around and head back to the hotel."

"After I show you the surprise I was talking about earlier of course."

I had forgotten about the surprise Dimitri had talked about back at the hotel and suddenly I became nervous. "If it is not cowboys and cowgirls playing dress up then I have no idea what the surprise could be."

Dimitri smiled at me and then stated, "No cowboys and cowgirls today. Actually your surprise is about 1 block away." Dimitri said continuing to direct me in the direction we were supposed to be going.

I hadn't noticed before how far we had traveled until Dimitri's comment. Now that I looked around, it was quite apparent that in the mist of our conversation we had walked a long distance. The restaurant we were eating at had to be about 5 blocks away from where we were right now. However, just like Dimitri had said, after we turned the corner of the remaining 1 block there was this huge building. From the looks of the place, it had to be something elegant.

"Is this my surprise?" I said looking at Dimitri.

"Yes. It is a very popular place in Russia. It is called…um…well I think back in the U.S. it is called the Nightingale."

"Yes, I know what you're talking about. I heard stories from people at the court about this place. It is supposed to be absolutely beautiful on the inside."

"Only one way to find out." Dimitri said pulling me to the entrance.

"Wait!" I said stopping Dimitri from pulling me any farther.

"What is it?"

"I heard that underage people aren't allowed here. I'm only 20 years old."

Dimitri laughed but then said. "In America the drinking age is 21 years old, here it is 20 years old."

"Oh. Okay." I said embarrassed about my ridiculous outburst.

When we approached the bouncer in front of the building, he took one look at Dimitri and let him pass without any difficulties. However when it came to me, he placed a hand in front of me, which prevented me from entering the building after Dimitri. The man then spoke to me in Russian, which of course I didn't understand so Dimitri had to translate what he said to me.

"He wants to see you I.D." Dimitri said.

"He didn't ask for your I.D. What do I look like a little girl or something?"

"Just show him your I.D. Rose. " Dimitri said in a voice that I knew meant he was afraid I would make a scene.

"Fine." I said to Dimitri before pulling my wallet out of my purse and showing the bouncer my I.D.

The bouncer then took my I.D. from my hand in order to get a better look at my foreign I.D.. After studying my I.D. for aout 5 seconds, the bouncer returned my I.D. and told me I could pass in a very heavy Russia accent.

Once I entered the Nightingale, I was shocked. Back in the U.S., the Nightingale was a well known place people visited when they were traveling abroad in Russia. Even though people spoke of its beauty, I wasn't prepared for what I saw. To say the place is beautiful would be an understatement. _The Nightingale reminded me of a winter palace with it's with ivory walls covered in gold scroll-work and molding. It also had elaborate chandeliers filled with real candles glittered in the air, lighting up the gold décor so that even in dim lighting, the whole establishment sparkled __**(Richelle Mead words not mine)**_ .

The minute I walked in, I instantly became imitated and self conscious about what I was wearing. I thought the black sundress I picked out was lovely but when I caught a glimpse of what everyone else was wearing, I suddenly felt underdressed. The people there dressed as though the place was hosting an imperial ball. As if to read my mind, Dimitri gave me a reassuring hug.

"There is no reason for you become self conscious. You look amazing. I'm the happiest man alive to be standing here with the prettiest girl in this room" Dimitri whispered in my ear, which ultimately caused me to melt inside. Dimitri and I have always had a strong bond. We could always sense what the other was feeling before they said anything. This night was no different. It was times like these that made me feel fortunate to have Dimitri in my life. He always knew what to say to make me feel better.

"Do you want to dance beautiful?" Dimitri said.

"I suppose." I said giving Dimitri a 'thank you for asking me to dance bow,' which made him smile and shake his head at me. He then took a hold of my hand and led me to the dance floor.

"Is there like a particular Russian dance we need to do…" I said looking around at the other people on the dance floor.

"We could dance whatever way you desire." Dimitri said taking me into a dance position.

As the night progressed, Dimitri and I danced. As we were dancing, Dimitri was so gentle in the way he held me. He also continued to whisper amazingly sweet things into my ear. It was weird, even though the place was crowded with other people dancing and socializing, I felt like Dimitri and I were dancing together in a room by ourselves. I guess this is what love is all about. To be with someone you love and to be able to forget that anyone else in the world exists.

However, all moments have to come to an end eventually and soon the employees at Nightingale were telling people that they would be closing for the night. After one last song, Dimitri kissed me and then took a hold of my hand and led me to the exit of the club.

I had expected the temperature to have significantly decreased while we were in the club but when I walked outside I surprised that it was still warm outside.

"Dimitri it is so beautiful outside. Let's walk back to the hotel." I said closing my eyes and taking in the warm breeze and the fresh air.

"Are you sure about that? I don't want you complaining 1 block into our walk back to the hotel that your feet hurting." Dimitri said nudging jokingly, which caused me to open my eyes and look at him.

Dimitri was right, my feet were hurting from the dancing we did but if I was capable of taking down a strogi, then walking 10 blocks back to the hotel should be no problem. In additon, this was our last night in Saint Petersburg and I still really wanted to see more of the town.

"I promise. Scouts honor." I said trying to sound believable.

"Well since you were never a scout… that promise doesn't count…" Dimitri said jokingly.

"I promise…I promise!"

"Well okay…um…we don't really have a choice anyways since the taxis are gone now. " Dimitri said looking around.

As I was talking to Dimitri about walking back to the hotel, everyone from the Nightingale had left and so did the taxis. If we wanted a taxi now, Dimitri would have to call one and it would probably take 20-30 minutes before they came and picked us up now.

I was about to reassure Dimitri again that I was fully capable of walking back to the hotel without complaining when suddenly I felt it. The nausea I received when there was a strigoi around. My first instinict was to alert Dimitri and then to prepare myself for an attack that would ultimately happen soon.

"Dimitri…" Was all I was able to say before being thrown against Nightingale siding.

And then everything went black.

**Yikes! I'm even excited to know what happen...**

**Please review.**

**Thank you**


	9. Chapter 10

**New Chapter yay!**

It was a loud beeping noise that brought me out of my unconscious state. When I finally opened my eyes, I found myself lying on the pavement next to a large garbage bin. As I proceeded to look around at my surrounds more, I found that the source of the beeping noise that had awakened me came from a garbage truck preparing to empty the garbage can bin inside itself. At first, I was confused by my surroundings. Why was on I lying on the streets? As I relayed that events from the previous night, I suddenly recalled the Strigoi and how I must have let my guard down long enough for it to have attacked me. This made me angry. How could I have been so stupid? I'm supposed to be one of the best guardians in America, yet I was blind sighted by a Strigoi.

When I noticed the approaching garbage truck closing in on me, I suddenly sat up. Sitting up fast was definitely a bad idea. As I rubbed my forehead with my right hand, I noticed that the left side of my face was extremely tender. Suddenly, I began to panic about my injuries. How bad had I been injured? As I moved my hand across the left side of my face, I felt a couple of cuts and it also felt like my face was a bit swollen. I also noticed that the left side of my shoulder was also kind of tender too. None of this was a good sign.

All of a sudden a new thought occurred to me. One that made me start to panic and hyperventilate. Where was Dimitri?

As I looked around the alleyway, I saw no sign of Dimitri anywhere. Suddenly, I stood up not caring about my injuries or the throbbing pain in my left upper thigh. Where was Dimitri.

By this time, the garbage man had noticed my presence and gotten out of his truck and was walking toward me. As he approached me I heard him say something in Russian to me but I didn't care what he was saying because it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was finding Dimitri. As I began to limp around the alley in my attempts to search for Dimitri, the garbage man reached out and grabbed a hold of my right arm, which caused me to move around abruptly to try to break myself out of his grip.

"No! Let me go! I need to find him!" I said panic stricken.

"It is okay. I want to help you. I will take you to the hospital." The garbage man said, in a thick heavly Russian accent, trying to calm me down.

"No! I'm not going anywhere without him! Let me go!" I screamed trying my hardest to break out of his grip.

In any normal situation, I would have had no problem breaking out of a human's grip but I was weak. Something was wrong with my left arm and leg, which hinder my attempts to get away from the garbage man. After trying to break his grip on me, I finally jumped with my left leg, which caused excruciating pain to explode throughout my leg, and kicked the garbage man in his right knee with my right leg. This action made the garbage man scream out in pain and immediately let go of my arm to tend to his knee.

The second the garbage man let go of my arm; I turned around and tried my hardest to run away. I figured whatever I did to my left leg was not as important as finding Dimitri.

When I reached the end of the alleyway and was sure that the garbage man hadn't come after me, I realized that I had no idea where to start to look for Dimitri. This sent panic throughout my entire body. Could my failure of letting a Strigoi sneak up on me ultimately cause me the loss of the love of my life? I would never forgive myself if Dimitri died because of me. However, I couldn't let myself go there. Dimitri was the best guardian I had ever met. There was no way he could let a Strigoi take him down. He would never fail the way I had.

Dimitri was alive. He had to be alive. And I was going to find him.

**Hmm...what will happen next...**


	10. Chapter 11

**I want to start off by thanking everyone for the amazing reviews. I love to see how people react to my story. So far I have only recieved good comments. This is a good thing. It means I must be doing something right. :)**

**After I wrote this chapter, I wanted to hit myself. How dare I put Rose through all this :O**

**Anyways...here is the new chapter.**

**Note: I realized that in reality if Dimitri were to go looking for Rose, he would have looked in the place where she was knocked out at. However, I wanted Rose to sound a bit delusional. **

The first place I decided to search for Dimitri was the hotel room. Maybe if Dimitri had survived the attack, he would have gone looking for me at the hotel.

As I proceeded to walk down the streets in my journey to the hotel room, I noticed that people were looking at me weird. In my panic stricken state to find Dimitri, I hadn't realized how I must look. I was sure that the left side of my face was pretty bad. I was also limping due to a mystery injury in my leg. However, as I looked down at my clothing, I noticed that I was covered in blood. True, I looked as if I had been jumped. But I didn't care. My only objective was to make it back to the hotel room where I hoped Dimitri was waiting for me.

Last night, Dimitri had told me that our hotel was 10 blocks from the Nightingale. However, he never said what direction it was. Many times throughout my walk, I contemplated asking someone for directions but due to my appearance and inability to pronounce the name of the hotel, I decided against it. I only hoped that fate would lead me in the direction to where I would be reunited with my love again.

As I was walking back to the hotel, I couldn't help but to remember a conversation I had with Dimitri on the airplane ride to Saint Petersburg.

_We were 8 hours into the flight to Russia when I began thinking about our future._

"_Dimitri, if we were to get married one day, where would we live?" I said looking at Dimitri. _

_I could tell that my question confused Dimitri. "What do you mean?"_

"_I mean…your family…they live in Russia. According to you, they love living in Baia. So…if we were to get married…would we live in…Baia or America?" _

"_Hmm… where do you want to live?"_

"_Well I have never been to Baia so I worry about whether I will like it. I suppose if Baia was cool then we could live there." I said pondering the idea of living in Baia._

"_I don't believe you could leave Lissa so easily."_

_He had stumped me. And my heart sunk into my stomach. As I was thinking about a future with Dimitri, I never thought of the possibility of being away from Lissa. This was a problem. It was problem I was use to dealing with. For the rest for my life, I would always be forced to choose between Lissa and Dimitri. This trip to Russia proved that separating from Lissa was hard. I couldn't even imagine being away from her permanently. I mean it wouldn't be like I would never see her again. We would still be able to talk of the phone and webcam. In addition, we could visit each other in person once in a while. But could I truly live in a completely different country than her? Could I truly force Dimitri to remain in America and be separated from his family? These were things I wasn't prepared to answer quite yet._

_Sentencing my distress about the topic, Dimitri took a hold of my hand and began caressing it. "We don't have to plan our entire life in this very moment." He said giving me a reassuring smile. "We still have time to think about the future." _

"_It's not fair. First we have to worry about people judging us because we're Dhampirs and therefore our relationship is pointless since we can't have children. Now we have to worry about one of us being unhappy because the other will be separated from the ones they love when we get married. "I said annoyed. _

_Dimitri took a deep breath and then said. "True, we are used to dealing with issues. We know that others will judge our relationship because we are Dhampirs. But we have learned to deal with it because it doesn't matter. Our love is proof that we have always overcome the issues presented to us." Dimitri said before kissing my hand he had been caressing. "I love you Roza, which is why I remain in America with you. However, that doesn't mean I love my family any less. Its…um…hmm…you learn to adjust. Do I miss my family every day? Yes I do. But do I remain in contact with them? Yes. "He said pausing briefly but then continuing. "I would have loved to remain in Baia with my family forever but my duty as a guardian forced me to leave. When it comes down to it, you need to make a decision on what is more important to you. Do we move to Baia or do we remain with Lissa. These are decisions we will have to make one day."_

"_Don't you mean I will have to choose whether or not to leave Lissa or stay with her?" I said staring at the seat before me. _

_Dimitri reached over and placed both his hands on my face so that I was looking directly into his eyes. "No 'we'. Whatever decision you make, I will support you. I will always be here for you." Dimitri said before gently kissing me. _

When the memory was done, I found myself crying. Dimitri had told me that he would always be there for me. But was I there for him when the Stigoi's attacked us last night? No I wasn't. I was too busy being passed out on the street. My only wish is to be able to find him so that I will be able to let him know how sorry I am for failing him.

When I looked up from my daze, I recognized the water fall where Dimitri and I had stopped to take pictures the night before. This was a good sign. If I remembered correctly, the waterfall was about 2 blocks away from the hotel. It meant that I had chosen the right direction back to the hotel after all. With a boast of confidence, I became extremely excited and proceeded walk faster in the direction I was heading despite the pain in my left leg.

As hurried down the street, a woman stepped in front of me, which blocked me from being able to walk any further, and said something in Russian to me.

"I...I don't speak Russian. I'm sorry." I said waving my hands in front of me impatiently. "I'm in a hurry. I'm sorry. I need to go." I said trying to walk around her.

As I tried to walk around her, she stepped in front of me blocking me from trying to pass her again. At first this caught me off guard but as I took a closer look at her I realized that she was a Dhampir in her mid- fifties.

"Are you okay?" The woman asked in American English which surprised me.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm in a hurry. So if you would excuse me." I said again trying to pass her.

This time, she reached out and grabbed by left arm, which caused me to let out a sigh of pain.

"Ahh…your arm…it is hurt." She said abruptly letting go of my arm. "Let me help you."

"Look. I'm grateful that you're concern and all but I don't need your help. I need to leave…there is somewhere I need to be." I said impatiently.

"Okay fine. You need to go somewhere. Let me help you to where you need to go." Before could interrupt her about not needing her help she continued. "It might be faster if I help you walk."

The thought of arriving at the hotel faster was appealing so I nodded my head at her. Once having my approval, she wrapped one of her arms around my waist.

"Lean on me for support…that way you don't put any more pressure on your left leg."

"Okay." I said leaning into her. "Why are you helping me?"

"Because I know what you have been through." She said looking at me.

"You were once a guardian?"

"Yes. A long time ago. How many Strigoi's attacked you?"

I took a deep breath before saying. "I don't know. I was knocked unconscious."

"And you're still alive!" The woman exclaimed.

"Apparently." I said in my usual Rose attitude. I was beginning to become annoyed by her persistent questioning.

"Huh…so where are we heading anyways?"

"We? There is no 'we'. I'm heading to the hotel that is about one more block in head of me. You are leaving to where ever you came from after I arrive at the hotel."

The lady, ignoring my rude reaction, said. "My name is Maria. If your hotel is about one block in head of us then I believe I'm staying at the same hotel you are actually. Since I was planning on heading back to my room anyways, why don't I escort you to your room."

"Why?" I asked confused.

"Like I said…I was a guardian once. I know how it is." She said not elaborating on what she meant.

"Look lady, I don't know what you are expecting from me but I don't care. I don't need or want you help" I said abruptly trying to distance myself from her.

This was a bad idea since it nearly made me hit the sidewalk face first. However, before I could hit the ground, Maria reached out and grabbed a hold of me.

"Look I will escort you to your hotel room and then I will leave you. Okay?"

"Fine. Whatever pleases you." I said sarcastically.

Throughout the rest of the walk back to the hotel neither one of us said anything. This was fine with me since I too worried about Dimitri and having him have to wait so long for me to return to him.

When we finally arrived at the hotel, I walked into the lobby alongside Maria. As I made my way through the lobby to the elevator, every person in the lobby seemed to stop and stare at me. For some reason this made me self-conscious. However, I had no time to dwell on that since my main goal was to make it to my hotel room so that I could see Dimitri.

Once we entered the elevator, it felt like it took years before we finally made it to the floor where I was staying. When the elevator doors opened I abruptly moved forward which caused Maria to flinch and hold onto me tighter.

"I'm fine now. This is my floor so you could leave me now." I said in a hurry.

"I said that I would walk you to your door." She said moving me out of the elevator.

"Really? Fine. I'm staying in room 1010." I said as I showed her the direction of my suite.

As I approached my hotel room, my heart rate began to increase. Every step that I took meant that I was one more step closer to seeing Dimitri again. When we were standing outside the door, I found myself unable to reach out and open the door. This was the moment that I had been hoping for since back in the alley way. The moment in which I would finally be reunited with my Dimitri. All I had to do was open the door. But for some reason I couldn't quite yet. Like I had put too much emphasize on this moment of truth.

"Are you okay?" Maria said to me.

"Yes. I'm just nervous."

"Why are you nervous?"

"I'm fine. Now I'm at my door so you could leave." I said ignoring her question.

"I suppose that is what I said." Maria said looking unsure about what to do. "Wait. Do you have a cell phone?"

"Um yes…why?

"I will give you my number in case you need my help or need to talk."

"What if I don't want to talk to you?" I said annoyed that she was preventing me from seeing Dimitri.

"Give me your cell phone. I will leave once I put my number in your phone. If you chose to not call me after I give you my number than I don't care. "

"Ookkaayy." I said giving her my phone. I must admit that as I watched her dial her number into my cell phone, I had come to the conclusion that this lady was weird. She was unlike any other guardian female I had ever meant. Years of fighting Strigoi usually made female guardian appear uncaring and strict. This lady had a kindness to her. She helped me without even knowing who I was.

"My name is Rose Hathaway by the way."

"Ahh. It is very nice to meet you Rose." She said giving me back my phone.

"Thank you for helping me."

"No problem. Like I said I know how it is." She said giving me a slight smile. "Now like I promised, I will leave. If you need anything don't be afraid to call me. I'm staying in room 821." She said before walking away.

Once Maria entered the elevator, I turned my attention to the hotel room. Unlike before, there was no hesitation to open the door.

As I walked inside the room, I called out Dimitri's name but received no answer.

"Dimitri?" I said looking in the bathroom but there was no sight of him.

"Dimitri, it's Rose. I'm here. Where are you?" I said limping toward the bedroom. "Are you sleeping Dimitri?" However, when I approached the bedroom, the bed was still neatly made.

"Dimitri ?!" I said raising my voice a bit.

"Dimitri, why won't you answer me?" I said in an almost in a panic state as I looked around the room.

Finally completely realizing my worst fears I began hyperventilating. "You're not here are you Dimitri?! You never came back to the hotel did you?! I let the Strigoi's kill you didn't I?! It's all my fault isn't it?!" I said dropping to the ground crying.

After about 10 minutes of crying, I pulled out my phone and dialed the only number I could think of at the moment.

After a few short rings, they answered.

"Rose what is wrong?"

"Maria, I need your help." I said crying.

**Two chapters in one day...yey...**

**Please Review. **

**Thank you **


	11. Chapter 12

**Warning: I have a steamy moment in the story but hopefully it is still acceptable for a T rating. I have never wrote a T rated story so I'm trying to tame myself. Please let me know if it needs to be altered. **

**Thank you **

**Enjoy**

Maria didn't waste anytime getting to my room. It felt like the moment I hung the phone up, she was pounding on my hotel room door to let her in.

"Rose it's me Maria. Let me in. I'm here to help you." I heard her shout. However, I knew that in my current state I was both too emotionally and physically spent to be able to walk to the door to let her in so I remained in the spot where I was. After a couple minutes, I heard Maria shout again.

"I'm coming in." She said as I heard the door open.

As soon as the door close, I heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the hallway to the bedroom where I was sitting on the floor crying.

I knew Maria had found me when I heard the footsteps stop suddenly. "Oh no! Rose, are you okay?" Maria said running over to me and kneeling down beside me.

"Tell me what happened?" She said wrapping her arms around me and pulling my head to her chest.

"I think...I think... he may be _gone_." I said struggling over the last word.

"Who is gone sweetie?" Maria said rubbing my hair gently.

"Dimitri."

"Dimitri? Was he your charge?"

"No. He…he…is the love of my life." I said.

"Was he killed by the Strigoi?"

"No!" I said moving abruptly from her arms. Although I had come to accept the idea that Dimitri had been killed, I wasn't ready to hear it out loud from someone else.

"I'm confused." Maria said giving me a concerned look. "I think you should tell me what happened." She said wrapping her arms around me once again and holding me against her chest.

By this time, I didn't care that I just met her and that she was a complete stranger to me. I needed someone to be here with me. To hold me and make me feel like everything was going to be okay. For some reason, even though she was a stranger to me, I felt comfortable with her presence. So comfortable that I decided to tell her the story of how I arrived in this predicament.

First, I took a deep breath and then proceeded to explain to her about the Strigoi attack, leaving out the detail about being able to sense Strigois, and how I had been knocked out. I also told her about how I woke up in the alley by the Nightingale and that I believed Dimitri was waiting here for me. As I was retelling the story of what happened, I found myself becoming more and more tired as I continued. Soon the words coming out of my mouth began to slur and I was sure they were barely recognizable. I knew that sleep would come eventually. However, after what felt like the longest day of my life, I welcomed sleep. Soon I found myself struggling to remain conscious. It was the feeling of someone picking me up and carrying me that half way broke me out of my sleepy daze.

"It is okay Rose. Go to sleep. I will stay here with you and make sure your okay." Maria whispered to me. She then began to hum a song that I found to be familiar. As I tried to focus on why the song was so familiar to me, I felt myself being placed onto a bed. I then felt someone push the hair from face and then pull the covers over my body gently.

"Sleep Rose. You don't need to worry anymore. I will take care of you." I heard Maria say.

"Okay." I said allowing sleep to overcome me.

As I drifted into sleep, I began to dream of a moment between Dimitri and I back at the court while I was in the gym training.

_As I was in my twentieth round of kicking the punching bag, I felt someone come up behind me._

_Following my natural instincts, I turned around suddenly to attack my intruder. As I threw my fist in front of myself in hopes of catching my intruder off guard, I found myself being slammed into the mats on the floor. At first, I was surprised that I had been so easily dominated but then my body was filled with anger. The angry that now consumed me wasn't due to my intruder but with myself. I had let myself be beaten._

_"Hello beautiful." I heard Dimitri whisper into my right ear as he encircled his arms around me waist._

_Suddenly my anger was gone. My intruder had been Dimitri. Although I still sulked at the notion of being beaten, but the fact it was Dimitri made me feel a little bit better. Dimitri and I trained together often. He knew the moves I was going to make because he not only taught me them but had trained with me enough to know what I would do before I did it. Well I guess our deep bond also probably came into factor as well._

_"I heard you were in here training." He said kissing my neck._

_"Oh really." I said running my finger through his hair. "And you thought that you would sneak up on me and surprise me?"_

_"I won." Was all Dimitri said but I could hear the slight disappointment and worry in his tone._

_"You won because you know me too well." I said trying to relax him._

_"Still…I…" Was all I allowed Dimitri to say before bring his mouth to my own and kissing him. I could tell Dimitri was about to give me a lecture on letting someone sneak up on me but I wasn't in the mood to hear it. Although Dimitri would probably continue this discussion later, I could tell that in this moment my distraction had worked. The only thing Dimitri was concerned about was my kiss._

_As the kiss began to heat up, Dimitri broke away from my mouth and started to gently kiss my neck. Soon his gentle kisses began to travel from my neck to my shoulders. As his kisses continued to slowly travel southward down my body they became more fierce. It would appear that this moment was no longer a tender moment between lovers. Dimitri wanted me and I was more than willing to give myself to him. As I lost myself to his kisses, I felt his left hand, which had been resting my on side during this time, begin to move up my shirt. When the tips of Dimitri's fingers reached the bottom of my sports bra, I knew that we had to stop. This was a public gym. Even though it was late, there was still a possibility that at any moment someone could walk into this room and catch us._

_"Dimitri." I said annoyed with myself for what I was about to ask him. "We…" Was all I was able to say before Dimitri's mouth returned to mine and had suceeded in convicning me to forget what it was that I had wanted to say before._

_As the kiss grew, I noticed that Dimitri's fingers had found their target. With the newfound wave of pleasure, I allowed myself to be consumed by Dimitri…_

Before I could finish the memory I was suddenly being thrown into another dream. However this dream was unlike the others I have had, it felt to real. All I could see was blackness but there was a familiar voice. This wasn't just anyone's voice. This was the same voice that told me so many times before that he loved me and would never leave me. It was the voice that had the power to calm me when I was angry and could make my frustrations and fears dissipate. This voice belonged to Dimitri.

In my dreams, Dimitri was calling my name repeatedly. A few times, I noticed that his voice carried a panic note. This surprised me, in the few years that I had known Dimitri, he rarely ever showed signs of fear. Yet, as he spoke my name in my dream, it was hard not to recognize the fear entwined in the way Dimitri said my name. The true terror in his voice scared me. As Dimitri continued to call my name, I tried desperately to reply to him but found myself unable to. As the dream progressed, I also noticed that Dimitri wasn't the only person calling my name. There were other voices too. Only I didn't recognize the other voices that were trying to talk to me. To be honest, none of the other voices matter. Only Dimitri's voice mattered. If there was anyone who could bring me out of my unconscious state, it would be him.

When I finally woke up, I found myself staring up at the ceiling. As I looked around to see where I was, I noticed two women sitting in the corner of what appeared to be a hospital room. When the younger woman saw that I was awake, she got up and walked over to me.

"Hello Rose." She said with a slight Russian accent. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay." I said in a groggy voice. "Where am I?"

"You're at the hospital. You suffered some serious injuries."

As she mentioned the word injuries, I looked at my left leg to see that it was in a black cast."Huh…did I break my leg?"

"I…I don't really know what happen to you leg. Do you want me to get a doctor for you?"

"You're not a nurse or something?" I said confused. I then heard the older lady in the background snort at my comment and then say something in Russian to the younger lady by my bedside. By the looks of it, it seemed like the older lady had just insulted me. This enraged me.

However, before I could say anything, the younger lady by my bedside said."I'm not a doctor or a nurse. Do you want me to go and retrieve one for you?" she asked concerned.

"Maybe in a few minutes…but first…could you tell me who you are." I said.

Again, the older lady made a comment to the younger woman in Russian. I don't know what it was about this older lady but she was really starting to piss me off.

"Look if you have some sort of problem with me why don't you just say it." I said to the older lady.

In response to my comment, the older woman began pointing her finger at me while speaking in Russian. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she didn't enjoy the fact that I had talked to her the way I did. Knowing that I had caused her some sort of distress, in return, made me gloat. I had never seen this person before but I could already tell that didn't like her.

"It is hard to understand you since I don't speak Russian." I said smugly. Despite being drugged up, I was surprised that I still maintained my usual 'Rose attitude.'

After my response, I expected the older lady to jump out of her seat and come after me. And I had no doubt she would have if the younger woman didn't say something to her in Russian. From the sound of the younger woman's voice, she was trying to calm the older lady down. After exchanging dialogue for about two minutes, the older lady finally stood up and walked to the door. Before she left the room, the older woman turned around to face the younger woman and stated something in Russian but this time I heard a name I recognized. Dimitri.

"Do you know Dimitri?" I said to the younger woman before looking back to where the old woman once stood. However, when I turned to face her I noticed that she had already left the room.

"Yes, I know him. My name is Olena. I'm Dimitri's mother." She said giving me a slight smile.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

"You're his mother?" I said abruptly.

Instead of replying to my question, she gave me a reassuring nod.

"You came all the way to Saint Petersburg to see me?" I asked confused.

Olena frowned at my reply but then said. "You're in Baia. This is the hospital in our town. You don't remember coming here?"

All I could do was shake my head 'no' to her. I then began to think about the last thing I remembered.

"I was at the hotel in Saint Petersburg with Maria...I fell asleep. That is all I remember. Did Maria bring me here?"

"Maria…?" Olena asked puzzled.

"She was an older Dhampir that I met in Saint Petersburg. She helped me back to my room." I said. "If she didn't bring me here than who did?" I said looking at her confused.

Before Olena could answer my question, I heard the door open.

As I turned toward the door to see who had entered, my world froze.

In the doorway, stood Dimitri.

**I apologize for not updating in a while...like a month. Hopefully this chapter makes up for it.**

**Thank you for reading.**


	12. Chapter 13

**New Chapter yey.**

Before entering my unconscious state, my worst fear was that Dimitri had been killed due to my failure to warn him about the Strogios. However, my fears seemed to subside as I watched Dimitri walk through the doorway. As I watched Dimitri proceeded to approach my hospital bed, all I could do was take all his features in. Due to his blood shot eyes and the enormous bags that had formed under his eyes, I could tell he was extremely exhausted. As my eyes traveled down his body, I also realized that he was wearing the same clothing that he wore the night we went to the Nightingale. However, now his clothing had rips and grass stains on them. Furthermore, his hair that was always pulled back in a smooth ponytail was now messy and falling out. I had no idea what Dimitri had been through in the past couple days, or however long it has been since we last seen each other, but by the looks of it, he was only in a little better shape than me. In the time it took me to finish analyzing Dimitri, he finally reached my bedside.

"Are you okay?" Dimitri asked.

Dimitri, who had mastered the ability to hide his feelings from showing on his face, was suddenly an open book. Just by looking at his beautiful face I could tell that he was worried about me. As I looked in his eyes, I even saw a trace of fear.

When I didn't answer right away, Dimitri, as if he realized I was lost in thought, reached out and caressed my right hand to bring me back to reality.

"I'm fine." I said giving Dimitri a promising smile to convince him that I was really okay.

Truthfully, as I allowed myself to take in the extent of my injuries, there was a slight pain in my left leg underneath the black cast that now resided on my leg. Also, as I shifted in the bed, I felt a slight soreness in my shoulder underneath where there were bloody bandages. However, as I tried not to show signs of the pain and discomfort that I was feeling, Dimitri seemed to see right through me.

"Can we do it now?" Dimitri asked impatiently looking at me before turning his face away from me to the door.

I was about to ask him what he was talking about when I realized that the question wasn't directed towards me. Instead, Dimitri was addressing the woman who had been standing by the door this entire time.

When Dimitri first entered the room, I was so taken back by him that I hadn't even noticed that a woman had apparently followed him into the room. As I finally allowed myself to focus on the woman who was standing by the door, I realized that she was a Moroi who had to be at least in her thirties.

As I continued to study her appearance, I realized that there was something about her that seemed weird. As I began to dwell on it, I realized it was the same weird feeling I got when I met Adrian at the ski lodge. If this was true then that meant that this woman was like him and Lissa.

"You're a spirit user?" I said abruptly as soon as the idea came to my mind.

I could tell by the lady's face that I had taken her by surprise. My statement was the last thing she expected me to say.

"Yes, Rose…I'm a spirit user. I'm kind of surprised you were able to guess it so easily. Spirit is still very rare. Not many people know that it exists." She said with confusion covering her face.

"I know. I'm just…um…well…" I said locking eyes with Dimitri to determine if I should tell her about Lissa. However, although Dimitri gave me a slight nod in approvement, I quickly decided to hold back from telling her about Lissa. "I have had experiences with spirit in the past." I said pausing briefly but then continuing to prevent her from asking about my past experiences. "So why are you here?"

Instead of the woman answering my question, Dimitri did. "This is Oksana. She lives in the outskirts of Baia. I asked her to come to the hospital to help you because she is a spirit user and has healed some of the villagers in the past. "

"We were hoping to arrive at the hospital before you went into surgery." Oksana said while gradually walking over to stand next to Olena, who had been silently standing by my bedside this entire time, on the opposite side of my bed was Dimitri. "I'm sorry it took us so long to get here." Oksana said.

"You wanted to heal me? Then why take me to the hospital to begin with?" I asked her.

"Dimitri brought you to my house in hopes of having me heal you but unfortunately I was not home so he brought you here." Oksana answered.

"Then why didn't we just wait until you returned home?" I asked to no one in particular.

"You were in bad shape Roza." Dimitri said caressing my hand that he had been holding on to this entire time. " I couldn't wait…you needed help."

"Again, if I had known you needed me, I would have remained at home. I feel so bad." Oksana said looking guilty.

"No, not even you can predict the future." Dimitri said to Oksana in the hopes of cheering her up. "The good thing is that you're here now."

"Right." Oksana said appearing to be a bit more relieved. "I will heal your wounds for you but since the doctors have seen you…I'm not sure how they will react to you being well so soon.

"If a doctor shows up I suppose you will just have to 'fake' your injuries." Dimitri said slightly smiling at me. "I don't know, howl in pain or complain for more medicine." Dimitri said making his smile grow bigger.

As I thought about how I would fake my injuries, I began to envision myself dragging my pretend hurt leg throughout the hospital while cursing just so that the doctors wouldn't suspect anything. This vision made me laugh out loud which of course brought everyone's eyes in the room on me. The laugh also brought back the pain, this time in my back.

Sensing my distress, Dimitri stated. "Ok we have waited long enough, is it okay if you heal her now Oksana"

"Of course Dimitri." Oksana said switching places with Olena to be closer to me. "Dimitri, could you stand by the door to ensure that no doctors come in? Like I said, spirit is still a new thing and I worry what other will think of me if they see me doing it to you. "

"I thought Dimitri said you heal the villiagers?" I said confused.

"I do, but only in extreme cases when it is necessary for me to do so. "Oksana said showing signs of discomfort. I could tell she didn't want to elaborate any further on the topic. However, I knew the reasons for why she only wanted to use her spirit on certain occasions.

As Oksana placed her hands on my black cast, I asked, "Are you afraid that the spirit will eventually come back and hurt you after?"

Again, my comment took her by surprise. This time, however, instead of asking me to explain, she looked directly in my eyes for only a brief moment, however to me it felt like a lifetime, but soon glimpses of my life flashed before my eyes. When it was done, Oksana smiled at me and then turned her attention back to my leg. I was so consumed in the thought of what had just happened that I barely even realized that Oksana had begun the healing process. It was the sensation that spirit always brought me that snapped me out of my daze. It is hard to explain what spirit feels like. After being around Lissa so much and needing to be healed a lot, I had grown accustomed to the feeling. I guess I could say that it felt like I was as light at a feather floating through the air. Every time Oksana finished healing a part of my body, I felt relief in that the pain and soreness dissipated. Before I even knew it, Oksana had finished healing my body and began to place her hands onto the left side of my face and began to heal my face.

"Such a pretty face." She said smiling at me but as I took a closer look into her eyes, I saw guilt.

Thinking that the reason behind her guilt was due to me I stated, "I'm sorry that you're being forced to heal me."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." Oksana said caringly. "You were hurt and I wanted to help. Especially, Dimitri has been more than willing to go out of his way for me over the year so this is the least I could do to thank him." Oksana said looking over at Dimitri with a smile on her face. "

"You have done more for me today than I could do for you for 100 years." Dimitri said to Oksana. "I might just have to be indebted to you for 100 years actually." Dimitri said giving a short laugh at his latest revelation.

"You're going to feel the effects of all this later." I said to Oksana.

Oksana smiled at me first and then leaned towards my left ear and whispered, "Don't worry Rose, I have my own bond mate too who will help me with the darkness."

Now it was my turn to be shocked. She had a bond mate too? Did she know about Lissa and me? How could she? About 20 minutes ago, she was surprised that I even knew what spirit was. Could she have been faking it? No, she couldn't have, I saw the surprise look on her face twice now due to my knowledge about spirit. Also, what did you mean that her bondmate would heal her later? As I searched through my mind that had filled with many questions for her, I decided to state the most obvious one. "You know someone else who is shadow kissed?" I whispered to her.

"I do…but we will have to finish this conversation another time." Oksana whispered back to me. She then moved away from me and proceeded to walk towards the door.

"Where are you going?" I said confused as to why she was leaving so abruptly.

"I have to go somewhere." She stated. "It was nice meeting you Rose." Oksana said giving me a gentle smile.

"When will we talk again?" I said trying to prevent her from leaving before I figured out about the other shadow kissed person.

"We will talk soon I promise…but for now I think you should call Lissa. She will probably want to know about what happened." Oksana said before opening the door and walking out.

"How do you know about Lissa?" I yelled hoping she would hear me and come back through the door and answer my questions. When she didn't return, I looked for answers from Dimitri.

"Why did she go?" I asked Dimitri.

"I don't know. You said it yourself, using spirit takes a lot out of someone. You had a lot of injuries." Dimitri said pausing briefly and giving me a sad look. "She used a lot of spirit today. She probably went home to rest." Dimitri said walking over to me.

"She knows about Lissa and there is another shadowed kiss person." I said sitting up in the bed.

"I know. Look." Dimitri said sitting on the bed next to me. "She promised to talk to you later and I have no doubts she won't. You need to try to be patient."

"Patient..." I said in a voice that was hopeless. "You know patient and I don't mix." I said giving him an exasperated look.

Dimitri smiled at my comment and said, "Yeah I know. That is why I added the word 'try' in."

"So what now"

"Right now we need to get you out of the hospital. I don't want to deal with the doctors."

"Oh yeah, how are we going to do that? The doctor will be back any minute to check up on me and in case you forgot…I'm no longer broken." I said.

"Yeah, I sort of notice that you are looking normal again." He said smiling at me.

"What floor are we on anyways?"

"We are on the tenth floor." Dimitri said.

"So is it not like we can just walk out of here without running into any doctors or hospital security or even guardians that may work here."

"I know."

"So how do we escape the hospital?"

"Hmm…well…you're Rose Hathaway." Dimitri said pausing briefly. "You're good at avoiding authority and coming up with escape plans." He said laughing and giving me a playful nudge.

**Ok finally a new chapter...sorry for the long wait...but since school is out I'm going to try to finish this story by the end of summer. **

**Thank you all for the reviews they are inspiring. **


	13. Chapter 14

**New Chapter...two in one night...yey**

"So what now?"

"Right now we need to get you out of the hospital. I don't want to deal with the doctors."

"Oh yeah, how are we going to do that? The doctor will be back any minute to check up on me in case you forgot…I'm no longer broken." I said

"Yeah, I sort of noticed that you are looking normal again." He said smiling at me.

"What floor are we on anyways?"

"We are on the tenth floor." Dimitri said.

"So is it not like we can just walk out of here without running into any doctors or hospital security or even guardians that may work here."

"I know."

"So how do we escape the hospital?"

"Hmm…well…you're Rose Hathaway." Dimitri said pausing briefly. "You're good at avoiding authority and coming up with escape plans." He said laughing and giving me a playful nudge.

"Ha, ha…very funny." I said sarcastically to Dimitri.

"Who says we have to break out of the hospital?" Olena said finally making her presence known in the room. "We could just simply tell the doctors that you wish to recover from your injuries at home."

"Yeah but I agree with Dimitri, breaking out of the hospital would be more fun." I said.

"Hey." Dimitri said waving his hands in front of himself to prevent the conversation from going any further. "I was just stating that we could break out of the hospital. I didn't say we should. My mother made a good point. Lets tell the doctors you want to recover at home."

"Fine." I said a bit disappointed. A part of me actually really enjoyed the aspect of using my hidden ninja skills to escape the hospital.

As if to understand how disappointed I was, Dimitri wrapped one of his arms around me and kissed the side of my head. He then whispered in my ear, "Don't worry, I bet by the end of this trip you will perform a break and entering." I knew that the only reason he made that comment was to make me feel better, deep down side I knew how disappointed he became when I committed these illegal acts.

"Don't worry Dimitri I won't break any rules while I'm here." I whispered back to him.

"Right." Dimitri said giving me a look that I knew meant he did not at all believe the words that were coming out of my mouth.

"Scouts honor." I said knowing he would find this comment amusing.

By the slight smile Dimitri gave me I knew I had been right. "Well you were never a scout so that promise doesn't count."

"If you say so." I said jokingly to Dimitri. After, I took a deep breath and put my serious face on. "No I'm serious Dimitri. I will be on my best behavior while I'm here." I said.

"Okay." Dimitri said giving me a tender squeeze. "Alright so we need to leave this hospital. I will go and tell the doctor you wish to me discharged. While I'm gone, you and my mother should place the bandages where they were before. This way the hospital staff won't see that you have been healed." Dimitri said to me before standing up and walking to the door.

As soon as Dimitri left the room, I began to look around for some bandages to wrap around my shoulder. As soon as I stood up out of bed, I suddenly realized that I was still wearing the black cast.

"I will be so excited when this is finally able to come off." I said pointing to the cast.

"I could only image how uncomfortable it must be." Olena said with a concerned expression on her face. She then began to approach me with some bandages in her hand. "Here are some bandages that I found over on the counter. "She said pointing to the counter that appeared to be filled with medical equipment that was behind me. "Do you want me to help you tape them on?" She asked unsure if you should touch me or not.

"That would be great." I said which made her relax. "I really hadn't been paying attention to how they were on my body before. I think two were on my shoulder and one was on my face. " I said trying to remember where the bandages were exactly.

"Here I think one bandage laid on your should like this." Olena said placing one bandage on my shoulder and taping it with medical tape so it would stay on.

"You're really nice." I said not realizing that I had actually spoken the words I was thinking at the moment.

At the sound of my comment, Olena looked up at me and smiled then proceeded to tape another bandage on my shoulder.

"Wow, I wasn't suppose to say that out loud. Actually I wish I didn't say it at all…I mean you are really nice but now that I said it…it is awkward now. I'm making it worse now aren't I?" I said nervously.

"No it isn't awkward at all. Thank you for thinking I'm nice." Olena said giving a little laugh that sounded to similar to Dimitri's laugh.

"I'm kind of nervous. This is not the way I thought we would meet."

"This situation was a surprise to all of this." She said while she taped a piece of bandage on the left side of my face.

"I could only image. What exactly happen? How did you find out I was in the hospital?"

"Dimitri called me. He said that you had been badly injured and that he was taking you to see Oksana. As soon as I hung the phone up, my mother and I made our way to Oksana's house to see if you were okay. By the time we arrived, Dimitri had already brought you to the hospital so we came here. Once we arrived, Dimitri asked if we would stay with you while he searched for Oksana."

"Your mother was that old lady?" I said shocked. Although, I had expected the older lady to be Dimitri's grandmother, I still wished it wasn't true.

"Yes, her name is Yeva."

"The old lady is Dimitri's grandmother. Wow. I think she hates me."

"She doesn't hate you. My mother lives in her own little world. She has beliefs that others may not agree with. In the end, she always seems to have good intentions."

I wasn't sure what Olena was talking about. I had a feeling Olena was trying to cover for her mother. What did she mean that the old lady always had good intentions? Was she trying to tell me something? Dimitri had warned me that his grandmother was protective of her family but I didn't think that meant she was crazy. This also meant that because the old lady appeared to hate me, she probably wouldn't go easy on me. I hope that whatever she throws at me I will be able to recover from it. However, before I could question Olena any further, Dimitri walked into the room with a doctor who I assumed was there to release me from his care. At the sight of the doctor, I suddenly threw myself into the bed and pretended to be hurt. The doctor was a Moroi who appeared to be at least in his eighties. Suddenly, I wondered why he was still practicing medicine. True Moroi seem to live longer than humans but why would this man still want to be a doctor?

"Hello, Miss. Hathaway. How are you feeling today?" The doctor asked me in an accent I didn't recognize while approaching me with a clip board.

"It is like I'm all healed." I said smiling. From the side of my peripheral vision I could see Dimitri frowning at my answer.

"Well that is good to hear. I think I may take a look for myself to see how your body is recovering." The doctor said placing his clipboard on the bed by my feet.

I could see that Dimitri was about to intervene but before he could I spoke up. "Is that really necessary? I said I was fine. Do you not believe me?"

"Of course I believe you." He said a little taken back by my statement. "Since you are being discharged without my medical approvalt, I want to make sure you are okay."

"Well I don't need you checking me out. I'm fine and I would like to sign the papers and leave."

Before the doctor could say another word, Dimitri spoke up, "Please doctor, we just want to get her home. We understand the risks in bringing her home but we feel adequate in our ability to take care of her. If there are any problems, believe me I won't hesitate in bringing her back." Dimitri seemed pretty convicning in his argument. Partly because I truly believe that if anything did go wrong with me he would not even hesitate to rush me to Oksana or the hospital.

"I really would feel more comfortable checking out my patient before discharging her but I will make an exception. " The doctor said to Dimitri appearing to be convinced that Dimitri would take good care of me. He then turned to me and said, "I'm going to call you everyday to make sure that you are healing. I also want you to make an appointment with the secretary to come in within the next week to have your stitches removed."

"Okie dokie." I said hoping that I wouldn't have to return to the hospital anytime soon.

"So could we go now?" Olena said to the doctor appearing to be a little uncomfortable in this situtation.

"Yes you may, just let me sign the paper so you could take it to the secretary." The doctor said before signing the slip and handing it to me. "I hope you remain well Miss. Hathaway." He said before turning around and exiting the room.

When he was gone, I said, "Yeah we rock."

"That was a close call. Now get dress." Dimitri said to me whiling handing me a bag of clothing.

"Why do you think he will come back?"

"No, I just want to leave. We have been at this hospital long enough."

Satisfied with Dimitri's answer, I looked in the bag of clothing Dimitri gave me and suddenly remembered the pretty dress I wore the night of the attack. "Dress? My dress…where is it? Was it ruined?" I said looking around.

"Yes, I believe the doctors had to cut it off of you when they were tending to your wounds." Dimitri said.

"They brought the dress to me but it was in bad shape so I threw it away. Don't worry Rose we will buy you another one." Olena said worried that she may have made a mistake in throwing the dress away.

"That was my favorite dress." I said disappointed. "And it looked so good on me."

"Everything looks good on you." Dimitri said.

"I know but this dress looked really, really good on me."

Dimitri laughed and then stated, "We will find another dress that looks really, really good on you."

"I suppose there will be others. Okay, everyone leave, I need to get dress."

As I laid out the clothing that was given to me, I realized that although Olena had left the room, Dimitri still remained in his spot.

"Dimitri, I know your use to seeing the body on a daily basis but today I look horrible." I said jokingly.

"You always look beautiful to me." Dimitri said walking over to where I stood. When he finally reached me, he placed both his hands on the side of my face. "Do you have any idea how valuable you are to me?" Dimitri asked gazing into my eyes.

"Do you have any idea how valuable you are to me?" I asked repeating his question to him as I placed my arms around his waist and pulled him closer to me so his body was pressed against my own.

"When I saw you at the hotel room lying in the bed…I thought…"He said pausing to collect himself before continuing. "I didn't know what to think. You were so hurt. I can't lose you Rose." Dimitri said bring his lips to mine and giving me a gentle kiss. As the kiss grew, I felt Dimitri's hands move from my face down to my shoulder and then to my back where he began to untie the hospital gown I was wearing.

Once the hospital gown was untied, Dimitri pulled away from our kiss to watch me let the gown fall off my body leaving me standing in front of him wearing only my bra and underwear. At the sight of me standing barely naked in front of him, Dimitri suddenly grabbed a hold of me and began to passionately kiss me as his hands moved throughout my body.

"Your mother will wonder what is taking us so long." I said as Dimitri's lips moved to my neck.

"She has strict rules about living in her house. One of them being no sex." Dimitri said before returning his mouth back to ravishing my neck with his kisses.

"Then I guess we have to take advantage of this time that we have alone." I said allowing myself to be overwhelmed with Dimitri's kisses. Honestly, even if this was probably our last moment to be together for a while, I don't think I could stop even if I wanted to. Only yesterday, I believed that Dimitri had been killed by a Strigoi but now here Dimitri was with his hands all over my body making me feel like I was the reason for why he woke up every morning and got out of bed. Dimitri was mine and I was his. This is how it always was and how it would always be. In this moment all I wanted was Dimitri and all he wanted was me.

As we continued to lose ourselves in each other, Dimitri began to undo my bra as I pulled the shirt he was wearing over his head. Once the shirt was out of the way I began to kiss Dimitri's lean muscled chest. Soon my kiss began to trail southward down his body until I arrived at the top of the jeans he was wearing. I quickly undid the button on the top of his jeans and unzipped the zipper and then proceeded to pull them down his legs until we were both left in only our underwear.

As soon as his pants were out of the way, Dimitri leaned down placing his hands underneath my armpits and picked me up. Once he did this, I wrapped my legs around his waist and brought his mouth to my own and gave me a feverish kiss. As our kiss grew more heated I soon felt myself being placed onto the hospital bed with Dimitri on top of me. Once we were both lying on the bed, Dimitri pulled from our kiss and began to rid us of our remaining clothing. Soon our hips were only a fraction apart and Dimitri and I began to return to our intense kissing.

Before our hips finally met, I pulled away from him only a little bit to say, "I love you Dimitri with all my heart."

"And I love you Rose more than you will ever know." Dimitri said and with that our lips returned to one anothers while we closed the gap between our hips allowing ourselves to be consumed with each other.

**Okay please review...how was this chapter?**


	14. Chapter 15

**Finally a new chapter...sorry it took so long. Since I'm in the process of writing three fanfictions, I decided to write a few chapters of each story so I don't get behind. Now I just need to go through them all and fix mistakes and other crazyness. **

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy.**

I couldn't say exactly how long we were in my hospital room. I got a feeling that it had to be about forty-five minutes to an hour. But I couldn't really say for sure since I wasn't exactly focused on how the time was past but rather what I was doing during my alone time with Dimitri. Dimitri had said that this would be our last time to be together for a while. Knowing this, I made sure to leave nothing undid. I made sure our time was used wisely. And from the look on Dimitri face as we finished getting dress, I had succeeded.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" Dimitri asked me. Until now I wasn't aware that I had been smiling at him.

"I'm smiling at you because I love you."

"That isn't your 'I love you' smile."

"Do I have different smiles?" I asked him more amused than confused.

"You have many different smilesDimitri stated as he walked over to where I stood and wrapped his arms around my waist. "This smile in particular is one you show when you're feeling 'over confident.' You usually wear this beautiful smile after winning a match against me at the gym."

"Oh."

"Which begs me to question, what has made you 'over confident'?"

"Oh that's easy…I'm amazing in bed." I said nonchalantly."

From the way Dimitri bursted out laughing at my comment, I could tell that he was not expecting me to say anything like that. As always, the sound of Dimitri's laugh brought joy to my heart even if it was due to my crude humor.

"Is that so?" Dimitri said still amused by my previous answer.

"Yeah. Not that I'm bragging." I said in one of my cocky attitudes.

"Not that you're bragging." Dimitri repeated my words shaking his head back and forth still amused. Apparently, he wasn't expecting to say that either.

I was about to continue with the many more comments now floating through my brain when there was a knock on the door.

"Miss. Hathaway? This is the nurse…is it okay to come in?" A woman asked from behind the door.

In the motions of our love making, the black cast that had been placed my leg as well as the many bandages were removed. Because seriously casts and bandages are not , now as the nurse stood outside the door, I found myself cramming my leg back into the cast as Dimitri taped bandages on my shoulder.

"Just a second." I said to the nurse behind the door as I did the finishing touches on my fake injuries.

As Dimitri walked over to the door to let the nurse in, he took one last look at me before noticing that I was missing one of my bandages. "Rose, there was a bandage on your face."

"Oh right." I said quickly taping a piece of bandage on the right side of my face.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting." Dimitri told the nurse as she walked through the door.

"That is fine. I'm surprised you guys are still here." The nurse said in an accent I didn't recognize. However, she appeared to be of Filipino descent.

"Yeah…I needed more time getting dressed." I said quickly.

"I could imagine. When you were first brought in here…oh you were in such bad shape." The nurse said in a sympathetic voice. "You look much better now. Actually…" The nurse said pausing and giving me a confusing look before continuing, "I could have sworn it was the left side of your face that was bady hurt."

I didn't have to see Dimitri to know that he was frowning at me. Honestly, how was I suppose to know that I put the bandage on the wrong side of my face. It isn't like I had a mirror after I woke up.

"Rose was badly hurt when she came in. Her entire face was covered in blood." Dimitri said grimacing at his own words.

"Yeah…" The nurse said still unsure about how my cuts moved to the other side of my face. "I suppose I could have been mistaken."

"Rose is still all set to leave, right?" Dimitri said quickly obviously not wanting to risk the nurse becoming suspicious of anything else.

"Yeah, she has been discharged by the doctor. You may bring her home when ever she is ready."

"I think she is about ready now." Dimitri said looking at me but his statement was directed to the nurse.

"Yep, I'm ready to be taken home." I said.

"Okay, I will go get you a wheelchair. Save your strength. Your leg will take a while to heal. You will be on crutches for a while." The nurse told me.

"Yeah…but I'm a fast healer." I said to Dimitri dismay.

"I will be right back." The nurse said smiling before turning to walk out the door.

When I was sure the nurse of out of hearing range, I addressed Dimitri. "Well that was a big oops."

"I think we need to get out of here before there are any more oops." Dimitri said as he walked over to sit next to me on the bed.

"Do I really have to be wheeled out of here in a wheelchair. Couldn't I just…I don't know…hop?"

"Why would you want to hop out of here?" Dimitri asked me.

"Um…my dignity!" I said like it was the most oblivious thing in the world.

"Your dignity?"

"I'm supposed to be this amazing guardian…yet I need to be wheel out of here in a wheelchair."

"So hopping down the halls is more acceptable for you?" Dimitri asked me amused.

"My mother would walk out of the hospital on her broken foot." I said dryly.

"Oh Rose." Dimitri said taking a deep breath. "You never cease to amaze me."

"Here is your wheelchair Miss. Hathaway." The nurse said. Apparently during my discussion with Dimitri she had returned with the wheelchair that I was being forced to use.

"Fine." I said to the nurse and I sat up in the bed.

To keep up the persona that I was still injured, Dimitri helped me off bed and proceeded to walk me to the wheelchair.

"Do you want me to push you out?"The nurse asked me but I felt the question was more directed to Dimitri.

""I think I'll take it from here. You have done so much for us already. Thank you for everything. We really appreciate it." Dimitri said nobbing to the nurse in approvement.

"No problem. That is what I'm here for." The nurse said to Dimitri before turning to face me in the wheelchair. "I hope you feel better Miss. Hathaway…you have a good guy here. He'll take good care of you."

"Yep, I know." I said to the nurse before turning and winking at Dimitri.

"Okay take care." The nurse said to us as Dimitri pushed me down the hall way to the waiting room.

When we finally approached the waiting, I looked around searching for Olena and Yeva but I couldn't find them."

"Where is your mother and grandmother?" I asked Dimitri.

"Knowing my nana, she probably got tired of waiting around for us and had one of my sisters come pick her and my mother up. I think I may call them real quick to make sure." Dimitri said as he pulled his cell phone out and dialed his house number.

"Huh." I said.

As I looked around the room at the people who were waiting for medical help while Dimitri started talking to one of his family members who had answered the phone, I secretly searched for Maria. Before I woke up in the hospital, my last memory was of Maria taking care of me in my hotel room in Saint Petersburg. Dimitri had said that he was the one who brought me to the hospital. Could Maria have come with him? He didn't state whether he came alone or not. But then again when I asked Olena if she knew where Maria was, she didn't know what I was talking about. I guess that would mean Maria didn't come to Baia? Hmm, I would have to ask Dimitri. Surely he would know what happen to her.

"I was right. Sonia picked my mother and my nana up about 40 minutes ago."

"So how are we getting home? Don't tell me we have to walk."

"No we don't have to walk. Actually one of my mother friends's offered to give us a ride."

"He offered?"

"Yeah, he heard about what happen to you and came to the hospital." Dimitri said pausing briefly. I could tell that he was debating on something. Like whether he should tell me something. I was about to question him about my suspicions when he continued speaking. "When Sonia arrived, we still hadn't come out of the room so he offered to wait for us. My nana is very an impatient person; she probably would have come looking for us. He knew that we needed our time so he decided to do us a favor."

"Oh. Is he here?"

"Yes, here he comes." Dimitri said looking to the right.

As I followed the direction Dimitri was looking, I saw an older looking Dhampir walking towards us. As the man continued to approach us, I noticed that there was something about him. For some reason, although I had never met this man before, he sparked an interest in me that I couldn't explain. Suddenly I wanted…needed to know more about him.

When the man finally joined us, he shook hands with Dimitri and then turned to greet me. "Hello Rose." He said reaching his hand out to me. "It is very nice to meet you." He continued as I shook his hand. "My name is Mark."

**I hope you liked this chapter...please review.**

**Thank you**

**In addition, I would like to take this time to pimp out my other story...if you like the way I write then maybe you will enjoy this story as well.**

**You can't post the entire link so type in fanfiction and then copy and past this- .net/s/5845613/1/Vampire_Academy_A_Journey_to_Find_Ones_Self**


	15. Chapter 16

**I hope you enjoy this chapter**.

"It is very nice to meet you Mark." I said proceeding to shake Mark's hand as I stared at him still completely baffled by the attraction I felt to him.

"So I guess I'm your ride." Mark said letting go of my hand and looking around. "Do you have any bags that need to be taken to the car?"

"No." Dimitri answered Mark but then turn to me probably sensing my shock.

"All of our stuff is still back at the hotel in Saint Petersburg?" I asked.

"Worrying about our belongings was not top priority on my list. You were in danger and I had to make sure you were okay. When we return to my house I will contact the hotel and have them arrange for our things to be delivered to us." Dimitri explained to me.

"Alright I guess." I said pausing and looking around the waiting room at the people waiting to be seen. "So…let's get out of here."

"Sounds good to me." Dimitri said smiling at me and proceeding to take a hold of the back of my wheelchair to push me. "Mark are you parked close?"

"Yeah, the car is on the second floor of the parking garage." Mark said as he led us out the hospital's doors and in the direction of the parking garage.

As we entered the tunnel that connected the hospital to the first floor of the parking garage, the sounds of an ambulance arriving at the hospital began to echo throughout the tunnel. My initial reaction was to quickly place my hands over my ears to protect myself from losing my hearing. Soon after, I felt Dimitri place his hands over the hands that were covering my ears. Bending my head backwards to look up at him, I realized he was laughing at me. He then said something to me that I could hear through the loud noise, but I didn't have to. I knew Dimitri was mocking me. After being together for two years, I knew exactly what he was saying, '_The all mighty Rose Hathaway taken down by a loud noise.' _

Not wanting to take my hands away from my ears to punch him I simply stuck my tongue out at him. Dimitri then smiled down at me and bent over to kiss me. Dimitri's kiss was short and quick which automatically sent disappointment throughout my entire body. Sensing my disappointment, Dimitri smiled at me and again said something that I couldn't hear. As I tried to make out his words I realized he was asking me if I had enough of him already. Smiling back at him I mouthed '_never' _and then moved my head back to look forward.

Looking around I could see that we were almost at the end of tunnel. In addition, the ambulance's sirens were no longer reeking havoc in the tunnel. Feeling my hearing was now safe, I removed my hands from my ears. However, as soon as my hands were away from my ears, a new sound emerged. It was the faint sounds of people screaming. The sound of the screaming instantly made me tense up. Was someone being attacked? After the incident that happened with Dimitri back at the Nightingale, I was a bit sensitive about my fighting skills having failed when he needed me. After finally getting Dimitri back, I couldn't risk losing him again. That feeling was too horrible to ever have to live through again. However, as I took deep breathes to keep myself under control, I realized that I felt no nausea. The screaming wasn't the result of a Strigoi attack.

As we excited the tunnel and turned the corner to where the elevator was, I saw two young people about my age arguing in front of the elevator. The female was a tall Dhampir with dark hair like mine. From the looks of her, she showed no signs of being a guardian but then again it didn't seem as though she was a blood whore either. The male was a Moroi with dark auburn hair that appeared to me slicked back with hair gel. As I tried to focus on their conversation, which surprisingly in English despite the rough Russian accents, I realized that the young female was accusing the male of cheating on her with another Dhampir girl. This didn't surprise me at all. Moroi men were known for using Dhampir females. I had no doubt in my mind that this guy was cheating. Just looking at his careless attitude as he watched the girl scream and cry proved as much. She was just another girl he had to _deal_ with.

I didn't even realize how angry I was becoming as I watched this scene in front of me until Dimitri placed a hand on my shoulder and said, "Stay out of this."

"Yeah, maybe we should take the stairs." Mark added.

As I turned my head to face Mark, I saw that he was looking at me with a concerned look. However, I began to get the feeling he was more concerned about me than the couple. Could he see that I was angry? I was sure that I was showing no signs. I mean Dimitri knew because of the connection we had. Before I could continue with my thoughts Mark began to walk towards me.

"Here, lets just take the stairs." Mark said offering his hand to help me get out of the wheelchair.

"Um…" I said suddenly worrying about whether I should continue to pretend that I was still injured.

Sensing my uneasiness through our invisible connection Dimitri said, "Don't worry."

_'Are you sure?'_ I mouthed to Dimitri trying not to let Mark see. I still wasn't sure how much Mark knew about my injuries but Dimitri seemed to think Mark would be okay with my sudden recovery. Before I could even show my miracle recovery, Mark spoke up.

"Oksana never ceases to amaze me. Look at you. Your completely healed." He said helping me out of the wheelchair.

"Wait you know Oksana?" I asked surprised. If he knew about Oksana than maybe he could tell me where she is. Oksana did promise me that we would have a meeting but she never told me when.

"Yes...I know her. I know her very well. She is my wife." Mark said giving me a soft smile.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Oksana was his wife? How could this be? I mean, sure Dhampir's and Moroi's would date but rarely ever married. Not to mention the age difference between them.

As I continued to analyze the information just revealed to me I felt Dimitri take a hold of my hand and help me up the parking garage stairs to the second floor. Getting up the stair was actually quite difficult. The black cast I was force to wear refused to bend so I was forced to hop up the stairs with Dimitri's help. When I arrived on the second floor sucessfully without breaking my neck, I saw Mark walked over to a red car. After closer inspection, I assumed it was a red Ford Focus but then again I was never a car expert.

Mark then unlocked the door with a code and opened the back door for Dimitri and I. "I figured you would both want to sit in the back together. If not there is an available seat next to me."

"Um we could sit in the back." I said still daze by the new found information I had just learned.

"Thank you Mark for giving us a ride. We will have to repay you." Dimitri said as all three of us got into Mark's car.

"Oh you know I will do anything for you and your family. You guys have been so kind to us." Mark said starting the car up.

"Yeah, grandma has always enjoyed you and Oksana's company. Still after everything you and Oksana have done…if there is ever anything you need just ask."

"I will remember that." Mark said smiling at Dimitri and me in the rear view mirror.

Grabbing Dimitri's hand and shaking it so he would look at me, I mouthed _'you knew?'_

Dimitri, understanding that I was referring to Mark and Okana simply nodded his head yes and took my hand into his and squeezed it. I knew the jester was Dimitri's way of telling me to stay quiet. He didn't want me to confront him in the car about this. Not with Mark only a feet inches from us.

For the rest of the ride to Dimitri's house I said nothing. Every now and then Dimitri and Mark would have a short conversation about old times but I wasn't really paying any attention to what they were talking about. I actually found myself becoming tired. I wasn't sure how long I had been asleep at the hospital but by the way I felt now it mustn't have been very long. Before I knew what I was doing my head was slowly moving towards Dimitri's shoulder. Sensing my movement, Dimitri looked over at me, probably noticing my exhaustion, and wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his chest.

The next thing I remember was Dimitri stroking my hair and cheek and whispering in my ear, "Rose…were here. Time to wake up beautiful."

Unaware of my location at first I groaned at him still exhausted. Then realizing that Mark was looking at me, I quickly sat up and rubbed my mouth and chin to make sure there wasn't any drool showing.

Suddenly feeling embarrassed about falling asleep with Mark in the car I looked at Dimitri and asked, "Was I snoring."

Smiling at me and stroking my hair Dimitri said, "Nope. I didn't even know you were asleep."

_'Liar.'_ I mouthed to him adoring the fact that Dimitri always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better.

"Thank you again Mark for giving us a ride." Dimitri said to Mark.

"It was no trouble at all." Mark said giving us a soft smile.

When Dimitri opened the door on his side and got out of the car, I decided to slid across the seat to follow him out his door when Mark spoke up.

"Rose. Oksana would like to see you soon. When you are ready of course. You probably have a lot of questions for her. She told me what she did back at the hospital. I know when I was in your position, I was confused too. Hopefully we are able to clear up any questions you may have." Mark said giving me the soft smile.

When he was in my position? They will clear up any questions I may have? Did that mean… "You are her bond mate." I said before I could process it in my mind.

"Yes. Yes I am." Mark said briefly taken back by my sudden revelation but then continued. "I would like to talk to you about that and...of course many others things as well."

"When?" I said impatiently.

"Well how about after you get settled in. I believe Yeva plans to visit us in a couple days. Why don't you and Dimitri tag along."

"I'll me settled in tomorrow. Why don't we meet up tomorrow?"

"Rose." Dimitri said poking his head back into the car and giving me a disappointed look.

"Okay in a few days." I said reluctantly.

"I hope you have a wonderful night Mark. Please give our thanks to Oksana. We'll be sure to see you in a few days." Dimitri said before I slid out of the door pushing Dimitri with me.

When I finally was outside, Dimitri and I watched Mark drive off down the road until he disappeared into traffic at the end of the road. When I finally began to assess my surrounding, I noticed that Dimitri was looking behind us. Following his gaze I saw a two story house that was white with a green front door. Suddenly the nervous feelings I had before about meeting Dimitri's family returned. Sure I had met his mother and grandmother in the hospital but now I would meet his entire family. I only hoped that the rest of them liked me and I was pretty sure his grandmother already despised me.

"They will love you." Dimitri said as he placed his right arm around my shoulder, as if to sense my distress, and pulled me to him.

"Are you ready to meet the in laws?" I knew Dimitri meant it as a joke. If I looked at him right now I would see him giving me one of his amazing big smiles that showed all of his teeth but I couldn't bring myself to turn my head towards him. All I could do was stare straight ahead at the Belikov's house. As I assessed my feelings I suddenly realized that I was truly afraid right now.

After standing in front of the house for a few more minutes, I allowed Dimitri to take a hold of my hand and lead me up the walk way. As we approached the steps that lead to the front door I noticed the blinds move on the window to the right of the door followed by footsteps.

When we finally made it up the steps, the front door swung open and I embraced myself for first person I would meet in Dimitri's family. Sadly, the warm welcoming I was hoping to receive was not going to happen. In the door way stood Yeva hold a knitting needle and by the look on her face I had no doubts that she wanted to stab me with it.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**Thank you for the reviews...they are amazing.**

**Please review this story.**


	16. Chapter 17

**New Chapter! Thank you for waiting.**

"Is it safe for her to be holding a knitting needle?" I whispered to Dimitri while not letting my eyes off the needle Yeva was holding.

"My grandmother likes to knit." Dimitri stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Apparently Dimitri didn't know about his grandmother's extreme hatred for me yet. "Hello grandmother!" Dimitri said as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Yeva's small frame.

In response to Dimitri's embrace, Yeva wrapped one of her arms around him while still grasping on to the knitting needle with the other hand.

"Grandmother, I believe you have met Rose back at the hospital." Dimitri stated as he pulled away from his grandmother's embrace to properly introduce us.

As I watched Yeva turn her body so that she was directly in front of me, I also noticed that she had began to slowly lower the knitting needle. At first, I actually thought for a second maybe I had been exaggerating about Yeva's hatred for me. However, that thought was shortly lived as Yeva suddenly flung the knitting needle in front of my face and chanted at me in Russian.

Having not been braced for her sudden change in movement, I flinched backwards almost falling down the front steps. Luckily, after years of training to be a Guardian, I was able to catch myself by grabbing on to the stairs railing. Even though, I was able to prevent myself from falling down the front steps, I couldn't control the weight of my body from plummeting into the railing.

"Rose, are you okay?" Dimitri asked concerned as he helped me up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied staring at Yeva and rubbing the upper part of my right arm that was now stinging.

"You're bleeding." Dimitri said as he bent down and grabbed a hold of my right leg.

Until now, my only concern had been my right arm which had taken the blunt of my fall but now as I assessed that leg Dimitri was holding, I could feel a slight discomfort. Like the kind you get when you scrapped your knee and it becomes tender as the blood dries.

"What is going on out here?" Olena asked as she stepped into the door frame behind Yeva.

Turning his head to look at Olena, Dimitri stated, "Rose fell and her knee is bleeding."

"I didn't fall." I retorted keeping my eyes on Yeva who was staring back at me unremorseful.

"Get her inside," Olena stated as she turned and disappeared into the house with Yeva following behind her.

"Are you able to walk?" Dimitri asked directing my attention back to him.

"Of course I can walk. I have had worse injuries then a scrap on the knee." I replied rather annoyed.

However, as I moved to walk into the house to demonstrate I was indeed okay, I felt a sharp pain rip through my right knee, which began to make me worry. A scrap on the knee should definitely not hurt this much.

As I bent over to look at my knee to see how bad it was, Dimitri, who must have decided that I was not going to be able to make it into the house before I bled to death, picked me up and proceeded to carry me through the doorway.

"Ugh, this just isn't my day," I complained as we entered the house and walked past a staircase and through a hallway covered in family portraits to the kitchen.

"You're fine." Dimitri said pausing briefly but then continuing, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" I asked confused looking up at him.

"I should have paid more attention. Maybe I could have caught you before you fell." Dimitri replied guilty.

"Well don't blame yourself. This wasn't my fault or yours because that wit-" I stopped deciding against finishing my sentence in cause the rest of the Belikov family was able to hear me. I would express my feelings about Yeva to Dimitri later on when no one was around.

"In here," Olena said as I looked up to see her standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

As we followed Olena into the kitchen, I saw Yeva sitting in the corner of the room in a rocking chair knitting.

"Do we need to call Oksana?" Dimitri asked his mother as he sat me down on one of the kitchen chair's Olena had pulled out for me to sit on.

"No!" I replied. True, a part of me was excited at the prospect of seeing Oksana again and being able to ask her the questions I was dying to know but not like this. This would be the second time today Oksana would meet me due to an injury she had to heal. Having been a strong person my entire life, I was embarrassed of how weak and injured I must look right now.

"Rose will be fine." Olena said smiling at me as she got on her knees and examined my knee. Looking up at Dimitri she continued, "The bleeding isn't that bad, it will clot soon then we'll bandage her up.

"Sweet. So no stitches?" I asked relieved.

"Nope. You'll be sore tomorrow morning of course but you're probably used to that being a guardian and all.

"Yeah. I guess." I said but in reality, having a spirit user best friend who has the ability to heal came handy after battle injuries. I rarely ever was forced to deal with any sort of pain.

"But of course, in a few days we see Oksana so if you're still in pain, we'll ask her to heal you." Dimitri said pulling up a chair to sit next to me.

Before I could respond about not wanting Oksana to heal me, Yeva spoke up. I wasn't quite sure what she was saying since it was in Russian, but she appeared to be angry. When Yeva was done, I expected Olena, like last time, to turn around and calm her mother down but instead it was Dimitri.

As I watched Dimitri and Yeva have a conversation in Russian, I could see that Yeva was agitated since she had now set her knitting needle on the table next to her and was sitting forward in her rocking chair. On the other hand, Dimitri sat perfectly calm next to me as if he was calming her down and trying to reason with her.

Since I wasn't able to fully understand what they were saying, I decided to focus on Dimitri. Even though, I had a chance to change my clothing at the hospital, Dimitri still wore the same clothing he wore the night at the Nightingale. However, now the clothing was ripped and had traces of grass stains. But it was barely noticeable since he was wearing his duster. As I looked closely at the duster, I noticed it lacked the stains and rips his clothing had.

"Did you take your jacket off before you fought last night?" I asked Dimitri abruptly ultimately disrupting his conversation with his grandmother. I could tell by Yeva's face she didn't like being interrupted but I didn't care.

"What?" Dimitri asked now turning his head to look at me.

"Your duster." I said reaching out to grab it. "It's not rip and grass stained like the rest of your clothing."

"Oh." Dimitri replied now looking down at his duster to see what I was talking about.

"Well did you remove it while you fought?" I asked beginning to become impatient.

"When we were leaving the Nightengale, I took it off because it was hot." Dimitri said looking back at me.

"Huh. Oh yeah, you did take it off. My bad, I forgot."

"You thought I would take my duster off before I battled?" Dimitri asked a bit amused.

"Hell yeah! I know how important they are to you. I only packed this one so I thought maybe you were being over protective of it. You know, since it is the only one you have."

"Actually the store in the main plaza still sells them." Olena stated.

"Shh." I replied to her. "He has like an entire closet full of them back home. He doesn't need any more. Believe me. No more." I said emphasizing the words 'no more.'

"I don't doubt you." Olena said laughing. "I know how much Dimitri likes those dusters. I think the trend started in high school."

"She's exaggerating mom. I don't have entire closet of dusters." Dimitri stated to Olena and then looked at me. "Tell her you're kidding."

"Oh I love the sensitive type." I said leaning over and giving Dimitri kiss on the lips then turning back around to face Olena I stated, "I was just kidding. He doesn't have a closet full of dusters. He has a closet full of western books."

"Rose." Dimitri said shaking his head side to side in response to me.

"See that is true." I said. "I broke his bookcase…um…long story, so he placed all the books in the closet."

"Oh we have an extra book case. You guys could dissemble it and take it back with you." Olena offered.

"Thank you mom." Dimitri said.

Turning to face me again, Dimitri stated, "This is going to be a long week with you isn't it?"

"What? I'm family bonding." I said innocently giving him my typical devilish smile.

Taking a deep breath and rolling his eyes at me Dimitri whispered in my ear, "You're going to love my sisters. They like to gang up on me as well. I was kind of hoping you would be my protector."

Wrapping my arm around Dimitri shoulders I whispered in his ear, "Okay, I was just kidding. I will try not to make fun of you anymore. As for the protector thing, you know I will cut a bitch if they hurt you."

"Rose!" Dimitri said shocked and looking over at Yeva. Following his glaze, I saw Yeva sitting in her rocking chair knitting again either completely oblivion to our chatter or ignoring us.

"Grandmother doesn't allow cursing in the house." Dimitri explained to me.

"You're mad I cursed but not that I threaten to cut your sisters? Wow I guess you're not the Brady Bunch type." I whispered to him trying not to let Olena hear.

"Well no." Dimitri said pausing to take a deep breath. "You're-"

Was all Dimitri was able to say before the sound of a baby crying through the baby monitor consumed the room.

"Oh Hannah must be awake from her nap. Mother could you go get here before she wakes up Riley?" Olena asked Yeva.

When it was apparent Yeva was going to get up, Olena turned to Dimitri. "Grandmother must be in one of her moods again. Dimitri will you go get her. She is in the playpen in Karolina's room."

Instead of giving any answer, Dimitri simply got up and exited the room. With Dimitri gone, I was finally able to focus back on my knee. So far, Olena had cleaned the injured area and was now tapping a huge bandage onto my knee.

"This is the second time today you're putting bandages on me." I said finding the need to fill the awkward silence.

"It doesn't bother me. I'm use to this kind of thing. I'm sort of the 'medicine woman' of the village." Olena explained.

"Huh. Cool. So, I just want to let you know that I'm not usual this accident prone."

"I understand. You're just having a bad couple days." Olena said smiling.

"Right." I replied smiling back. "So where are Dimitri's sisters?

"Karolina and Sonya are at work, and Viktoria is in school. Viktoria goes to a school about 3 hours away from here. However, luckily, being a senior this year she is giving the privilege of coming home while the other grades take exams so I will be picking her up in two days. You'll have to wait to meet her but Sonya and Karolina will be home around dinner time."

"Oh. When is dinner time?" I asked Olena.

Looking up at the clock behind her, Olena turned back around to me and said, "Actually dinner time is in about an hour. Oh my, I must have lost track of the time."

"Yeah I'm probably the reason for you 'losing track of the time.' Do you need to finish making dinner? I could finish taping the bandage on."

"No it's on already. I was just holding it in place so it will stick. You're all done." Olena said giving me a warm smile and standing up to wash her hands in the sink behind her.

"Okie dokie. Thank you Ms. Belikov." I said trying my best to sound polite.

"Oh no! Please call me Olena." Olena responded.

"Okay Olena. So where is Karolina's room?" I asked looking around.

"Walk down the hallway and up the stairs. Karolina's room is the second door on the right." Olena explained as she opened up the refrigerator and began to search around for something.

Standing up without irritating my knee was easy enough. However, as I tried to walk, I was again hit with the sharp pain in my right knee. Looking over at Olena, I was about to ask her if she had any pain relievers but having seen how busy she was with cooking I decided against it. I would just have to manage through the pain for now.

After a couple of steps, I started this limping-hopping motion which surprising reduced the pain in my knee but I bet I looked rather stupid. However, with Olena busy at work in the kitchen and Yeva ignoring my existence, I took relief in knowing that no one would see me.

When I finally made it to the steps, I grimaced. Now how was I going to walk upstairs? Looking around, I figured no one would see me scooting up the stairs backwards on my butt. Trying to move as fast as I could so that no one came home and saw me, I finally made it to the top of the stairs.

Standing up again was a bigger issue, but I managed to use the railing to pull myself up. After all the work it took me to finally make it to the second floor, Oksana's healing powers were looking better than ever right about now. But I couldn''t let myself go there. I didn't want to use Oksana like a 'band-aide.' What kind of person would she think I was? Like Olena said, as a guardian I'm suppose to be able to deal with pain. In addition, as long as I continued this limp-hop thing my knee was okay.

Walking past the first door and arriving at the second door, I looked into the room and saw a pink crib that said 'Hannah' on it as well as a playpen. Inside the play pen I could see a toddler who was wearing a white tee shirt, jeans and blue socks. Now completely standing in the doorway, I could see the other side of the room. To the right of the room was a full size bed with a purple comforter with different color flowers on it. At the top of the bed by the pillow sat Dimitri with his back towards me. At first I wondered why he was sitting there alone but as I took a closer look, I saw that he was holding a toddler in his arms and singing to her quietly in Russian.

The scene was honestly remarkable. In all the years I have known Dimitri, I knew he would make a great father but standing here now and watching him sing to the little girl I knew I was right. Dimitri was meant to be a father. I would love to have a baby with Dimitri. However, Dhampirs are unable to reproduce with each other. If Dimitri and I were to have a child, we would have to adopt or one of us would go through the insemination process. Our genes were not destined to mix.

Wanting a closer look, I stepped through the doorway and limped by way over to where Dimitri sat. As I sat down next to him, Dimitri looked over and smiled at me and then continued to sing to the little girl. I was half surprised Dimitri continued to sing even in my presence. Shouldn't men be embarrassed about singing? I suppose Dimitri must not care. That over he felt relieved that I didn't know what he was singing.

"She is so cute." I whispered to Dimitri now taking in the little girl's appearance. Like Dimitri, the little girl shared his dark complexion, however, her hair was light brown and slightly curly. "Is this Karolina's baby?"

"Yeah," Dimitri whispered back.

Then suddenly he did something I wasn't prepared for. Dimitri picked the little girl up into his arms and placed her into my arms. At first I was shocked. I have never held a baby in my life. I mean it's not like I've never seen a baby or anything, I was just never given the opportunity to hold a baby before. But now as I looked down at this beauty sleeping child in my arms, I couldn't help but feel comfortable. Like this child belonged in my arms or something.

"You look like a natural." Dimitri whispered to me.

"She is so cute."

Smiling Dimitri said, "I know. Belikov's babies have a cute gene."

"I want a Belikov baby." I cooed.

Laughing quietly Dimitri replied, "Okay then let's get started making one."

"We can't. No babies for us." I said a bit depressed.

Taking my face into his hands he forced me to meet his eyes. "That doesn't mean we can't have children. There are other ways. We could have this one day." Dimitri said serious.

"I want to have a baby with you." I whined.

"You could have a baby with me. It doesn't matter if it's through adoption or insemination, the baby will be ours."

Not wanting to depress this moment with my anger about our inability to create a child together, I decided to change the topic. "You want a baby with me?"

"There is no one else in this world I would rather raise a child with but you." Dimitri replied and then gave me a long gentle kiss.

When our kiss was over, Dimitri wrapped his arms around the baby and me and then continued to sing the Russian song again. Even though I didn't know the words he was singing, I decided to hum along to the beat.

I'm not sure how long we sat like this but soon, I heard the sound of the front door downstairs slam and people chatting.

"You're sisters are home." I said to Dimitri.

"Yeah, are you ready to meet them?" Dimitri asked and then kissed my check.

"No." I replied.

"Oh, well you'll love them. You will only meet Karolina and Sonya tonight. So just two out of the three. Not bad at all." Dimitri said trying to sound like what he was telling me was a good thing.

"Okay let's go." I said.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was very long. My longest chapter so far.**

**I know I keep leaving you hanging about what happened to Dimitri after the Nightengale incident as well as what happen with Maria. Don't worry, it all gets cleared up next chapter which will be up within the next two days. **

**As always thank you for reading my story and don't forget to review.**


	17. Chapter 18

**This is a very long chapter with a lot of things going on. **

**I hope you enjoy. **

Having never held a toddler before, I thought was doing quite well. I had actually managed to stand up with Hannah in my arms without waking her up or dropping her. However, as I looked ahead to the playpen across the room, that Dimitri told me we would be placing her in, I surprisingly began to feel nervous. With my hurt leg, there was no way I would be able to carry her to the playpen without tripping. So I decided it would be in Hannah's best interest to have Dimitri carry her safely to the playpen.

"Here, take her." I said quietly as I moved Hannah into Dimitri's arms.

"Are you sure? I will make sure you don't drop her." Dimitri replied quietly as he took Hannah into his arms.

"Yeah, maybe next time. I feel uneasy about carrying her." I replied refusing to admit that the real reason was my tender knee.

"Okay." Dimitri said understandably as he walked across the room and placed Hannah into the playpen next to Riley.

As I started to walk behind Dimitri, my knee began to throb again. In order not to continue placing a lot of strain on my knee I used the wall and the bed post to help move me to where Dimitri was. Coming up behind Dimitri, I wrapped by arms around his waist for support and leaned against his shoulder as he placed his right arm around me and we watched the two toddlers rest peacefully.

"Is that Sonya's baby?" I whispered to Dimitri.

"Yeah, Riley." Dimitri said and looked at me smiling. "Riley was a surprise. Sonya was convinced she was having a baby girl but then Riley showed up. She thinks she's having a girl this time but we'll see soon enough."

"Sonya's about due. That's why I planned our visit around this time. You weren't able to be here when Hannah and Riley were born. But you'll see the newest edition." I said looking at Dimitri and then to the babies.

"There you guys are." A voice said from behind us.

Turning around to face the source of the voice, I saw a woman with dark brown hair pushed back into a ponytail standing in the doorway. Figuring since the woman standing before me was not nine months pregnant; than that must mean that she was Karolina, Dimitri's eldest sister.

Confirming my assumption, Dimitri replied, "Hello Karolina," as he walked over and pulled his sister into his embrace.

"It is so good to see you again little brother." Karolina stated as she pulled away from Dimitri's embrace.

"Rose this is my older sister Karolina." Dimitri said as he and Karolina walked over to me.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Karolina." I said trying to sound polite as I extended my hand.

Instead of shaking my hand, to my surprise, she stepped forward and pulled me into a hug.

"Oh, you're like family now. No need to be formal." Karolina said as she pulled away from our hug and placed either one of her hands on my face. "Oh, Dimitri sent us a picture of you but it just didn't do you any justice at all. You are beautiful."

"Um, thank you." I said a little unsure and embarrassed.

As if I wasn't embarrassed enough, Dimitri stepped, "No camera could ever capture her true beauty. She is absolutely gorgeous." he said as he placed his right arm around my waist.

Feeling flushed and embarrassed by the recent attention I was now receiving, I buried my head in Dimitri's shoulder. I wasn't really sure why I was feeling so embarrassed right now. Throughout my life, many people have told me I was beautiful and I have never reacted this way. I would usually just brush it off.

"Is she shy?" Karolina asked Dimitri.

Instead of answering her question, Dimitri abruptly laughed but then quickly turned toward the playpen to ensure he didn't wake the babies up. Seeing that he didn't disturb their slumber, he turned back to face Karolina relieved. I had no doubts that if he did wake the babies up, he would have been furious at himself.

"No she's not shy. Sometimes I wish she was." He whispered than paused to nudge me. "It would make my life a lot easier."

"Shh you." I said to Dimitri pulling away from him.

"I'm kidding. You're amazing just the way you are." Dimitri said as I allowed him to pull me back into his embrace.

"Oh, get a room you two." Karolina said and she pushed past us and walked to the play pen. Turning back around to face us she continued, "On the other hand, don't. Rules." She explained as she reached down into the play pen to pick up Hannah.

"Dinner's ready." I heard Olena say as she walked up the stairs.

"Are we going to have some weird Russian food?" I whispered to Dimitri so Karolina wouldn't hear. I had meant it as a joke but I was afraid that if Karolina heard me she could be offended.

"I hope not!" Dimitri replied in a whisper as he smiled at me. "None of that horrible food, right?"

"Huh, a man of jokes today." I replied giving Dimitri a skeptical look.

"Oh, Dimitri has always been a 'man of jokes.'" Karolina said as she walked up to us holding Hannah in her arms.

"Huh, really?" I said only half believing what I was hearing.

"I mean half the time they're just stupid jokes but every once in a while he says something funny." Karolina said as she nudged Dimitri with her elbow.

"Nonsense." Dimitri replied. "Don't listen to her."

"Stop picking on him, Karolina." Olena said as she walked into the room and over to Dimitri to rub his arm as if to console him.

"Okay fine. I was just having some fun. You know, helping Rose get to know the real Dimitri."

"Uh huh. I bet." Olena said to Karolina but then turned to me and whispered loudly, "Don't listen to them. They are always picking on my poor baby boy."

"You know what; I think it's time for us to go down stairs." Dimitri said as he took a hold of my hand and helped me out of the room.

"We'll catch up later Rose." I heard Karolina say as I walked down the hallway with Dimitri.

"You're family is nice. I like them. Especially Karolina. She's funny." I said looking behind me to the room we just exited from.

"Yeah you guys seem to be bonding very well." Dimitri said.

"Did you expect me to hate her or something?" I asked a little amused.

"No, of course not. Out of my three sisters, Karolina's personality resembles yours the most. She can me very outspoken at times. Sometimes similar people can conflict. When you conflict with people, it's not good." Dimitri said serious.

"I promise not to 'conflict' with you sister." I said still amused.

Giving me a skeptical look at first, Dimitri finally took a deep breath and smiled as he said, "Scouts honor?"

Laughing at our old joke, I responded, "Scouts honor."

To prove my point, I crossed my pointer and middle fingers together and held them up into the air.

"Okay, okay I get it." Dimitri said smiling well he reached out and my crossed fingers and kissed them.

As Dimitri helped me walk down the rest of the stairs and turn the corner to continue our journey down the hallway to the kitchen, I could hear the sound of a female talking in Russian. When we entered the kitchen, I saw a female with a huge swollen belly sitting on a bar stool in front of the kitchen counter on the phone. By the sound of her voice, I could tell she was in the middle of an argument. At the sight of us, she screamed something into the phone and slammed it onto the receiver.

"Is everything okay?" Dimitri asked his sister.

"Yeah." She replied as she took a deep breath to regain her composure.

"Rolan?" Dimitri asked concerned as he went over to his sister and rubbed her back gently.

"It's like he doesn't even care. I thought maybe he would want to be there when I have the baby but nope. I don't know why I'm so surprised. It wasn't like he was there for Riley's birth. It's that bimbo. The one he's keeps seeing behind my back. She is the reason for this." She replied angrily.

"He doesn't deserve you." Dimitri said.

"I know. I just want Riley to have a father." Sonya said as she got up from the bar stool and stretched.

"You can't force him to be a father." Dimitri explained. By the sound of Dimitri's voice, I could sense some anger. As I looked over to the top of the counter where is hand was now balled into a fist, I knew what I sensed was right. Dimitri was angry but you would never know since he maintained his composure so well. I was sure right about now he was fighting for control of his emotions so he could bury them before anyone noticed. But I noticed.

"Sounds like a jerk to me." I said nonchalantly to break the tension in the room. However, instead of breaking the tension, I was rewarded with a fierce look from Dimitri. Did I say something wrong?

"What do you know!" Sonya said as she waddled out the back door furious at me.

"What?" I asked as Dimitri shock his head at me in awe.

"Sonya is very sensitive right now." Dimitri explained.

"So you can tell her 'Rolan' is a jerk but I can't" I retorted.

"I didn't say that." Dimitri responded.

"Hey what's going on in here?" Olena asked as she walked into the room holding Riley followed by Karolina and Hannah.

"Sonya is upset. She went outside. It's Rolan." Dimitri explained. I was glad he didn't mention my name since I was the reason she ran off.

"Oh dear. I guess I will go see if I could talk to her." Olena said as she put Riley in his booster seat at the table and walked to the back door.

"I wish she would just cut Rolan from her life. That guy has done nothing but hurt her and knock her up." Karolina said as she fiddled with Hannah's hair.

"She wants a father for Riley and the baby." Dimitri responded.

"Rolan isn't a father. He is a monster. I'm glad Riley has never met him." Karolina retorted as she walked over and placed Hannah in the booster chair next to Riley.

"The guy is really that bad?" I asked wanting to know more about what is going on.

"Yeah, he keeps playing around with Sonya. She lets him too since he's Riley and the new baby's father. She keeps hoping for this happy ending but it will never come. Not with Rolan anyways." Karolina responded.

"Someone needs to knock some sense into this guy." I said becoming angry. The one thing I hated was no good Moroi men who think they can go around and hurt defenseless Dhampir females.

"But it won't be you." Dimitri responded.

"Well someone has to." I said.

"Rolan doesn't come around here. He wouldn't dare to. Not after what grandmother did to him." Karolina said smiling as she dwelled on an old memory.

"What did she do?" I asked Karolina curiously.

"Oh, it doesn't matter. But if I were you, I wouldn't get on grandmother's bad side." Karolina responded as she walked over to the stove and took what appeared to be bread and set it on the counter to cool.

Not taking her answer, I looked to Dimitri for a real answer. Instead Dimitri shook his head and mouthed 'later.' Was it really that bad? I asked myself becoming slightly nervous.

Limping over to where Dimitri stood by the counter, I whispered, "She tried to kill him didn't she?"

"Well…not exactly." Dimitri responded.

"Where is your grandmother right now?" I asked looking around as if she were to sprang up behind me and stab me with her knitting needle.

"She is outside in the front. Grandmother likes to sit on the porch and watch the neighbors."

"So she's the noisy neighbor." I asked.

"I'm telling her you said that." Dimitri responded amused.

"Go ahead." I said sticking my tongue out at him.

"Okay," Dimitri said as he pulled away from me.

"No, no. No reason to disturb her." I said embarrassed by how I was acting. Really, Rose Hathaway afraid of a tiny old woman. I should be embarrassed of myself.

"Okay, later." Dimitri said smiling.

"You guys are so cute together." Karolina said as she washed her hands in the sink. "To be young and in love again, boy I miss those days."

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Rose!" Dimitri replied. '

"I know, hello rude." Karolina responded laughing. "I'm thirty years old."

"Oh, I see." I responded. "So you're four years older than Dimitri?"

"Yep." Karolina replied.

"Oh—" Was all I could say before the back door swung open and Sonya and Olena walked through.

As I watched Sonya walk up to me I actually expected her to release World War Three on me but instead she said, "I apologize for the way I was acting before. I get a little emotional at times. That is not an excuse. You're a guest in our home and I should have acted for respectful. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I should have minded my own business. I have a hard time with that." I replied a little shocked by her apology.

Unlike Karolina who had an outgoing personality. Sonya appeared to be quieter and more reserved like Dimitri. If Dimitri had been the one to go off on me, I had no doubts he would have given an apology speech much like the one Sonya had.

"So now that all is forgiven, let's sit down and have a great meal together." Olena said and she put her arms around Sonya and me.

The dinner table was rectangular and made out of elegant dark wood that matched the dark wooded chairs perfectly. At first, I was concerned on how we all were going to fit at the table since there were only six chairs and two of them were occupied by the toddlers in their booster seats but then Dimitri and Olena reached underneath the middle section of the table and extended it out. After, Olena went into the closet and pulled out three matching black chairs that were stacked on top of each other and placed them at the table.

"Victoria will be home soon so I might as well pull a chair out for her as well." Olena explained.

"What about Paul?" I asked remembering the other missing family member.

"Paul is in school. Viktoria gets to come home and visit because she's exempted from exams but not Paul. I'm not sure if you will be able to meet him." Karolina explained to me.

"Oh well. There will be other times I presume." I replied.

As I took my place at the table across from Hannah and next to Dimitri and the missing chair for Viktoria, I was now able to really study Dimitri's family. Karolina, who sat kiddy corner from me, had let her hair out of the ponytail it was in earlier. Now I could see that her hair resembled Dimitri's. It was dark brown and rested at her shoulders. Whereas Sonya's hair was a lighter shade of brown and pulled back into a messy braid. Since she was also nine months pregnant, her built differed from her sister's. Unlike Karolina who was very thin and tall as well as flat-chested, Sonya was shorter and had a thicker body. Despite their differences, I could see family resembles like the color of their eyes and the olive skin color the family shared.

"Tonight we are having Rose's favorite; spaghetti and meatballs. I also made my homemade bread and there is white bread too if you desire that as well." Olena said as she placed the food on the table.

I was actually kind of surprised we were having normal American food for dinner. I must admit I was more than glad. Spaghetti and meatballs were my , my pleasant mood was interrupted as I watched Yeva walk into the room and take her place at the opposite end of the table than me. For a couples minutes, as Olena set the food up on the table, I expected Yeva to do something crazy. I mean, she did almost attack me today and hurt my knee? But nothing happened. Instead she just started up with a conversation with Sonya.

When the food was finally placed on the table, everyone began to pass around the food and serve themselves like a typical family dinner. Growing up, I never really had family dinners like this, which sort of made me feel sad. My mother was rarely in my life growing up so we never sat around the table and ate like a family. Even if we tried to eat together, it rarely ever went great anyways. Typically she would say something that would piss me off and I would make a scene that would ruin the dinner. However, lately she had been trying to be a major prescience in my life but sometimes I truly wished for the normal family life. The closet I ever came to a normal family setting was when Lissa's parents invited me over for dinner. They too, would pass the food around and have typical dinner conversations that didn't result in fights.

When we were done with dinner, we each took turns washing our plates off and setting them in the dishwasher. Of course since my knee was still hurting me, I asked Dimitri to bring my plate up. As I sat at the table, I watched Olena cleaned up the toddlers who had made a mess with the spaghetti sauce.

"The babies were so good during the meal." I said to Dimitri when he returned to where I was sitting.

"My mother put them down for their nap late so they were pretty well rested for dinner. However, they probably won't want to go to bed tonight to Sonya's and Karolina's displeasure." Dimitri responded.

"Well a lot of things happened today." Olena explained.

"Yeah, it's been a long day." I said getting up from the table. However, as I stood up I accidentally hit my knee against the empty chair in front of me casing pain to rip through my knee.

"Are you okay?" Dimitri asked as he grabbed my arm and helped me walk away from table.

"Yeah, my knee is a bit tender." I replied.

"Oh my!" Olena said causing me to turn towards her alarmed.

"I didn't give you any pain relievers." Olena explained as she raced out of the room and came back shortly after with a bottle of pills. "Here take these." She said as she pour a few pills into my hand.

"Thank you." I replied as I slipped them into my mouth.

"You've been walking around here in pain? Why didn't you say something" Dimitri asked me concerned as he helped me walk out of the kitchen.

"You make me sound like a pansy. I'm capable of dealing with pain." I responded.

"Don't be difficult. There is no need to be walking around feeling unnecessary pain." Dimitri scolded me.

"Oh." I responded not really feeling like arguing. Trying to change the subject, I asked, "So what do we do now?"

"I could show you around the house if you want." Dimitri replied excited.

"Sure. Lead the way." I said as Dimitri took my hand into his and lead to the living room. The living room was older looking than the rest of the house. The couch was a shade of lime green that sort of looked out of place in the blue and white themed room. There was also a fireplace that looked like it hadn't been used in ages. In addition, there was no television.

"So you guys don't watch T.V.?" I asked shocked.

"We have televisions up stairs in our rooms." Dimitri replied.

"Well why not down in the living room?" I asked confused.

"Grandmother doesn't like it. She doesn't watch anything on the television. She says it poisons the mind."

"Huh, that makes sense."

"It does?" Dimitri asked looking at me amused.

However before I could explain something caught my eye on top of the fire place. "Ahh!" I said and I limped over to the picture needing to take a closer look at it.

Picking the picture up off the fireplace mantel, I was now staring at a picture of Dimitri as a child wearing a cowboy suit.

"I knew it!" I said excited.

"Only you would walk into a room full of family photos and pick the most embarrassing one of me." Dimitri said laughing as he walked over to where I stood.

"You're really a cowboy! I love this picture." I said as I set the picture back on the fireplace mantel.

"Could I borrow your cell phone for one second?" I asked Dimitri.

"Sure, what for?" Dimitri asked as he reached into his pocket and pulled it out and handed it to me.

"I'm going to take a picture of this picture." I said smiling. "Then I will send it to my email."

"Why?" Dimitri asked suspiciously.

"Because it really brings out the fireplace. So much so, that I want to put it on our fireplace." I replied sarcastically.

"We don't have a fireplace." Dimitri said confused.

"One day we will. Now shh. I'm trying to capture the brilliance of this picture." I explained.

"I'm beginning to regret this house tour." Dimitri stated as he rolled his eyes.

When I was done taking the picture, I decided to look around the room for more. "What is over there!" I asked as I laid eyes on a bookshelf.

"Is that? Are those? _The books._" I asked excited.

Instead of letting Dimitri answer my question, I decided to limp over and look for myself. Hitting the record button on the cell phone, I decided this moment couldn't be displayed by a picture. I need to voice this moment.

Turing the camera on me, I said, "We are now approaching a historical moment. The books that started it all! Yep, there in front of me, right now." I explained as I turned the camera to the shelf. "Even though the books are in a different language, there are true cowgirl and cowboy action happening here. Maybe if we're lucky, comrade..." I said moving the camera to Dimitri now and then continuing. "…will give us a preview into the books that changed his life."

"You are ridiculous" Dimitri said into the camera.

"Here take the camera. I want a shot of me with them." I told Dimitri.

"Do you want me to continue videotaping it?" Dimitri asked as he took the cell phone from me.

"No stop the video and take a picture." I replied.

"Their my books, shouldn't I be in the picture?" Dimitri asked after he took a picture of me in front of the book shelf smiling with my thumbs up.

"Of course. Get over there." I said taking the camera from Dimitri and switching places with him.

"Actually, could we take the picture of you reading a book?" I asked.

"Why of course we can." Dimitri replied laughing as he took a book off the shelf and opening it up in the middle. "This is my favorite one.'

"Good, good. Okay I'm taking the picture now." I said.

"What are you guys doing?" Karolina asked as she walked into the living room towards us.

"Taking pictures." I replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I see." Karolina said trying to hold her laughter back. "Well, break time. Mom wants Dimitri to help her with something in the kitchen."

Without saying anything, Dimitri placed the book back into its rightful place and got up and walked out of the room to the kitchen.

When Dimitri was gone and out of hearing range, Karolina spoke up, "You're good for him."

"I would beg to differ. Sometimes I think he's too good for me." I replied.

"He takes things pretty serious. But when he's around you, he lightens up. You make him happy. I think you make him crazy more. But crazy in love."

"Yeah, I guess I do." I said.

Even though I wanted to be happy about what she was telling me, I could see it made her sad. Everyone wants to meet the perfect person for them. As Dhampir woman, that rarely ever happens. Dating our own kind was typically looked down upon and Moroi men rarely ever desired to settle down with us. Life was unfair for Dhampir woman but I had found true happiness with Dimitri, which was rare. As I looked at Karolina now, I felt bad. There is a chance she would never experience what I have.

"I got a chance to hold Hannah earlier today." I said trying to lighten the mood. "She's beautiful. I think she looks like you"

"You think so? I see her father in her. The light hair, and the attitude. Yep, definitely her father." Karolina explained.

"Were you and her father together?" I asked curiously.

"No. It was more of an arrangement." Karolina explained. "Hannah and Paul have the same father."

"Well I guess that's nice. He's not in their lives?"

"No. It's best that way."

"Yeah, I never knew my father either. He could actually be my mom's milkman for all I know." I explained.

Laughing at my comment, Karolina said, 'You're funny. I like you. Stick around," As she started to tidy things up around the living room.

"I will try. As long as Dimitri wants me around." I replied looking around the room. "Karolina, where will I be staying while I'm here?"

"It's the first room upstairs on the left." She said looking at me. "Are you going to be okay getting upstairs by yourself?"

"Yeah, I will be fine. Guardian remember. Worse injuries than this." I explained as I limped out of the room.

Once I was at the foot of the stairs, I was hit with the same problem as before. How do I make it up there? Before, I had gone up the stairs backwards on my butt but now there were people around. I guess I could just wait for Dimitri but I was feeling wobbly all of a sudden. Maybe it was from the medication Olena had given. I needed to lay down.

Taking a deep breath, I took a step with my good leg and dragged the other one up from behind. "Well I guess this could work," I said to myself as I continued up the steps. The drugs were now taking effect and the pain was not as bad as before. I could do this.

When I had finally reached the top of the stairs, I was more than relieved. I was actually a little out of breath which was silently embarrassing since as a guardian I'm supposed to be in good shape. However, there was no one around see me so I felt I was safe enough to take deep breaths to catch my breath.

"Are you okay?" Sonya asked scaring me half to death. As I looked up, I saw that she was standing in the doorway to the right of me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I almost had a heart attack, but I'm fine." I said trying to calm myself and annoyed that I let someone sneak up on me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I just heard a noise and went to see." Sonya explained.

"Yeah, it's not your fault. Everyone gets scared once in a while." I explained not wanting to talk about how she had caught me off guard. "I'm just going to go into the room I will be staying in now."

Before she could response, I walked through the doorway and shut the door. Turning on the light to check out the room I will be staying in, I was surprised. The room was covered in posters of singers and actors some I recognized and others I didn't. This is definitely a teenager's room.

"This must be Vikotoria's room." I said to myself.

Looking through the pictures of Justin Bieber that basically covered the mirror, I was able to find a small section to look at my own appearance. I was surprised to see that I looked okay for no makeup and being exhausted. This isn't exactly how I'd imagine myself looking when I met Dimitri's family for the first time but I guess you can't control everything. I do wish I would have at least looked into a mirror when I arrived to tidy myself up.

Deciding I could do nothing more with my appearance, I walked over to the full size bed covered in pictures of a man with brown hair that was half naked, who I perceived to be a foreign celebrity. As I laid across the bed without pulling the covers over me, I was shifting into a coma sleep when I heard a slight knock on the door.

"Come in." I said reluctantly.

"Were you sleeping?" Dimitri asked as he opened the door.

"No I was having a make out session with this stud here." I explained sarcastically as I pointed to the guy on the blanket.

"Huh, should I leave you two alone?" Dimitri asked smiling.

"Um, how about just for a few more minutes." I teased.

"Maybe later." Dimitri replied as he walked over to the bed and sat next to me.

"What's up?" I asked Dimitri seeing how he was in serious mode now.

"I wanted to talk to you about what happened after the Nightingale." Dimitri explained.

"Oh, yeah." I said sitting up and moving to sit next to him. "We exited the Nightingale and then I sensed a Strigoi and I tried to tell you but it was to late. The next thing I remember was waking up in the alley."

"Then you came looking for me?" Dimitri asked.

"Yeah, I thought you would have returned to the hotel. Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking. Why the heck would you go back to the hotel when I'm laying in an alley way?"

"You hit your head hard."

"So that's my story, what's yours?"

Looking down at the floor, Dimitri explained, "I saw the Strigois. All of a sudden they were all around us. I've never seen so many. There had to be about thirty or forty. It reminded me of the attack on Saint Vladimir Academy. It was so sudden and so many. Even though I was paying attention to our surrounding, I couldn't do anything about the ambush. The Nightingale is known for sporadic attacks but even then, attacks rarely ever happened in huge groups like that."

"So they attacked. What happen to you? Why weren't you there when I woke up?" I asked.

"When the first set of Strigois attacked, I tried to fend them off and away from you but you were hit." Dimitri said looking at me. "Why didn't you fight back?"

"I…I don't know. I sensed the Strigois but then everything went black. Maybe one snuck up on me."

"You can't let that happen again." Dimitri said placing his hand on either side of my face. "You need to stay focus. Never let them get the upper hand."

"I know all of this," I paused looking down at my hands but then back up to him as I continued, "It won't happen again."

"When I saw that you were injured and knock unconscious, I couldn't let them know so I tried to leer them away from you. It was a stupid move because it left you unguarded but it was the only thing I could think of. I couldn't stop all of them from getting to you. One would eventually get by." Dimitri said as he let go of my face slowly.

"So what happen next?" I asked curious.

"I led them away from the alley and down the street to a field. I'm lucky I was able to lead them that far before they caught up to me but I had to keep them from you. I took them out one by one and before I knew it, I had killed all of the ones that were present in front of me. When it was over, I tried to walk back to you but I was so physically spent."

"What happen?" I asked as Dimitri turned his head from me.

"I collapsed." Dimitri said angry as he jumped up and walked over to the wall leaning his head against it.

"That's okay…" I said trying to make him feel better.

"No its not! Dimitri whipped around and screamed at me.

Taken back by his sudden emotion, I sat there quietly not knowing what to say or do. Dimitri always stayed in control but as I watched his emotions unfold in front of me now, it felt like I was seeing a new side of him. One that was kept hidden from everyone.

"You think you failed me." I said finally getting enough courage to speak. "I'm alive right now because you led the Strigois away."

"It wasn't good enough." Dimitri said as he paced around in front of me. "I should have made it back to you."

"So what happened after wards? You woke up on the field?" I asked trying to move the story along. I mean he found me eventually so it had to get better.

"The Alchemist showed up. They brought me to a medicine lady in town. I woke up there." Dimitri explained.

"And you came back to find me?"

"Yeah, but you weren't there." Dimitri explained as he came over and sat next to me again without looking at me. I could tell by his balled first he was still angry but at least the outraged part was in control. "I looked for you. I thought maybe you woke up and were walking around nearby."

"But you couldn't find me because I was already gone." I asked trying to finish what he was thinking.

"You were in a foreign area; I didn't know you would find your way back to the hotel."

"Did you come to the hotel looking for me?"

"I did after a while; I should have come sooner of course." Dimitri said looking down at his fist and releasing them.

"But you found me with Maria."

"Yeah she was there with you," Dimitri said pausing to look at me, "You were in bad shape Rose. When I first saw you…I thought…maybe I was too late."

"I thought you were dead too." I explained as I remember how bad it hurt me to think that.

"I brought you to Baia because I knew Oksana could help you. I would have flown Lissa here it I knew that would have been quicker." Dimitri said as he moved his right hand to my face.

"Lissa would have flipped out. I'm glad you left her out of it."

"True but she would have wanted to help you."

"Yeah help me back to America." I said trying to change the mood. "I know she would have dropped everything and jumped abroad a plane."

"You're so important to me Roza. I don't ever want to experience that again." Dimitri said as he moved his forehead to mine.

"Never again." Was all I could say as Dimitri brought his lips to mine.

Like always, the kiss started off gentle and innocent but as it grew so did the passion. Before I knew it, we had fallen backwards on the bed with Dimitri on top of me shirtless. Having relieved the entire experience of losing him, I needed him now. Slowly trailing my fingers down his stomach and to the top of his jeans to undo the button, I was surprised when Dimitri suddenly pulled away and sat up.

"What's wrong?" I said immediately.

Taking a deep breath and combing his hands through his hair, Dimitri replied, "Rules."

"You mean the 'no sex' rule?" I asked.

"Yep that rule."

"Well we won't tell them." I said reaching out for him again.

Moving away from my touch and getting off the bed, Dimitri said, "My grandmother will know. She always knows. Sonya and Royce tried it. Like Karolina said, he never came back to the house after wards." Dimitri explained to me as he reached over and grabbed his shirt to put it back on.

"Okay fine. This rule thing is going to suck." I said disappointed.

"I know how you feel. I should go now." Dimitri said.

"Where are you going?" I asked confused.

"To keep us from temptation, grandmother wants me to sleep on the pull out bed." Dimitri explained.

"The entire vacation?" I asked shocked.

"Yep. I will just me downstairs in the living room-" Dimitri said pausing but then continued, "Stay up here. In this room."

"Fine." I said reluctantly when Dimitri assumed my plan. Well it wasn't quite a plan yet but I was thinking about sneaking downstairs to see him.

Leaning over the bed, Dimitri gave me a goodnight kiss, which I tried like hell to take advantage of until Dimitri broke free. After, I watched Dimitri shut the light off and exit the room. When I finished listening to him walk down the stairs, I felt lonely. I had grown accustom to sleeping in the same bed as Dimitri and now by myself I felt a little uneasy.

"You're being a baby Rose." I told myself as I got underneath the covers.

As I laid in bed, I couldn't seem to fall asleep. The pain in my knee was starting to throb again but I didn't know here the medication was in the house plus I didn't feel like walking down the stairs. Dimitri would probably think I was sneaking to see him anyways. Even though it would be hard, I guess I will try to follow the rules.

"I should call Lissa." I said as I sat up in bed deciding that sleep wasn't coming anytime soon. Picking up Dimitri's cell phone, that I never gave back, I dialed her number. When the phone went to voice mail two times, I gave up and decided to do something I wasn't supposed to. Visit her mind.

Setting the cell phone down on the nightstand, I laid back and tried to relax as I closed my eyes and waited to enter Lissa's mind. Soon I found myself back at the Court. However, I didn't recognize the room I was in. Could Lissa be somewhere in the Court I have never been to?

Suddenly I knew what was going on. I wasn't in Lissa's mind. I had actually done the impossible and had fallen asleep. My assumption was proven right as a voice spoke from behind me spoke.

"Hello little Dhampir."

**Another super long chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! :D  
**

**Please review**

**Thank you**


	18. Authors note

**Now that winter break is in session, this story and my other one have become my top priority. I'm seriously going to work on finishing them. Expect updates in the next few weeks.**

**As promised for not updating here are some spoilers. They are not in any particularly order:**

_The strigois that attacked aren't going to be gone for long. Another fight shall appear. _

_Someone is going to die._

Rose breaks a rule! How will Yeva respond?_- Probably the funniest scene I ever written. Well it was funny for me...not so much for Rose. _

_Dimitri decides Rose is the one for him…will she feel the same?_

**Thank you for all the support ands patience for the past few months. I'm approaching my senior year of college and things are getting intense. **

**Also, I originally was going to write this story with pure rated T but I'm seriously thinking about bumping it up to rated M. Rose and Dimitri was quite a scene approaching ;) Review/Message me and let me know how you feel about the change age appropriateness. **

**Thank you!**


	19. Bonus

**I promised to have this story finished for winter but unexpectedly my hard drive crashed and all my chapters vanished. $800 later, it was restored but then school started up again. :(**

**My reason for slow updates is because I'm in the process of finishing my Bachelors Degree in Childhood Education. Teacher by day and school work by night doesn't allow me the freedom to free write. Since I'm taking like 90 years to get back to this story I will give my readers a preview of what is to come.**

* * *

_Preview One: Scene with Rose and Viktoria after a day of bonding._

I walked into the doorway of the house followed by Viktoria.

"I'm so exhausted from shopping." I exclaimed as I rested my shopping bag onto the kitchen table. "I don't even know if I will be able to make it through this family barbeque."

"Well you have to come. It is important you come." Viktoria stated.

"Yeah, I guess." I said taking a closer look at Viktoria as she fiddled around with the new clothing she bought. I could tell she appeared nervous. Actually the entire Belikov family had been acting weird recently, especially Dimitri. Many times, I had walked in to a room in the house to secret whispering. Even though I tried to brush it off, inside my inner voice was screaming to me that something big was going to happen.

* * *

_Sexual Preview (I said before my T rated story maybe going M): Scene with Rose and Dimitri:)_

As our lips came together, it felt as though the world had stopped. Nothing else seemed to matter to me as I felt Dimitri released his grip from my wrist and let his hands trail up my arms until they were both entangled in my hair.

Feeling a desire awaken inside of me, I let my hands travel down Dimitri's side to the hem of his shirt. Pulling apart briefly, I drew Dimitri's shirt over his head and let it fall to the car seat. As Dimitri sat before me with his chest bare, I couldn't help but be amazed by the definition in his chest. I had seen him shirtless many times before but for some reason I just couldn't get use to it. All guardians seemed to acquire muscle tone due to the strenuous training sessions required of us. However, with the olive color of his skin, the definition in his chest seemed to stick out more.

Slowly glazing my finger tips across the definition in his chest, I felt Dimitri slightly tense up under my hands. Looking up to meet his power stare, I saw him separate his lips and exhale.

"That tickles you know," Dimitri said smiling as he reached out and pulled me closer to him.

Before I had a chance to respond, Dimitri brought our lips together again. This time, there was no gentleness about the kiss. There were no more restraints. Having not been able to touch him for so long, I was more than happy to let go and give into the desire that had plagued us. It felt like forever since I felt his hands on my body caressing my every need. Neither of us wanted to waste any of this time we had to be together.

* * *

**Thank you so much for being so patient.**

**As always, let me know what you think. :)**


	20. Chapter 20

**An update. I worked on this chapter for the entire day. The next update will be this 4/7- 4/8. **

* * *

"Hello little Dhampir." Adrian said.

"Adrian." I replied acknowledging him. Usually, when Adrian made these sorts of visits it was because he had a purpose. Back in high school, he would often visit me just to chat and annoy me. Now, living only minutes away from each other at the court, we were free to have conversations during the day time hours.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Oh, Rose I've missed you!" Adrian said throwing his hands into the air dramatically. "Honestly, what were you thinking leaving me for a month?"

Adrian was drunk. I didn't have to smell the alcohol in his breath to know. Now, allowing myself to really take in Adrian appearance, I scolded myself for not realizing it sooner. Adrian, who was also a picture of perfect, now stood before him in wrinkled clothing. His eyes showed signs of sleepless nights and maybe even some puffiness you typically get after crying. I wasn't quite sure why Adrian didn't just mask all of this. He could have presented himself to me anyway he wanted, yet he chose to show me what he must look like in his wake life.

"What happened?" I asked concerned.

"What hasn't happened?" Adrian replied falling into the poetic state he sometimes fell into during times of extreme emotion.

"Adrian, what's wrong?" I asked again stepping forward and laying my hand on his right arm.

"What's wrong?" Adrian replied in more of a statement then a question. "We are standing here talking when we should be partying."

Just then, the surrounding began to change. We were no longer in the unfamiliar room at the court but were not shifted to some sort of dance club with poles and neon lights that could have been a strip club for all I knew.

Before I had a chance to question Adrian about the sudden shift in scenery, he took my hand that had been resting on his arm and pulled me further out on the dance floor.

"Look Adrian, I know something is wrong with you right now and I want to help you…but…my idea of help isn't getting up on the pole." I stated as I let him lead me to the back of the club.

"Oh, do you reserve that right for Dimitri only?" Adrian replied with a smirk.

"Watch it. I know you're in a bad state of mind but that doesn't give you the right to be a first class jerk." I replied coldly. I truly did want to help Adrian but he was starting to wear on my patience.

"You disturb my peaceful slumber for some reason other than partying. Tell me what it is or let me go." I stated bring us to a halt.

"Why does everyone want to talk? Lissa, Eddie, my mother. Everyone wants me to talk. I don't want to talk anymore." Adrian replied in a voice louder than I think he meant to.

"What about Mia?" I asked confused. I, for one, or anybody else for that matter, would have never considered Mia and Adrian to ever become a couple. However, in the past seven months, things seemed to blossom between them. The guardian Mia had been dating the year before, had suddenly been killed in a duel with a Strigoi and Mia had been left alone. She had taken comfort in Adrian's friendship and soon it turned into love.

Well, that was Lissa's description of the events. I concluded that Adrian was nothing more than a rebound.

"Mia and I broke up." Adrian confessed letting go of my hand and turning away from me.

"Broke up? I asked utterly shocked. Yes, I did believe this relationship would fit in the rebound category but that didn't mean I was any less surprised. "Was it mutual?"

"Listen, I came to you because you are supposed to be the one person that doesn't force me to talk about my feelings." Adrian explained with his back to me still.

Despite my curiosity, I decided not to push the matter any further. If Adrian didn't want to talk about it, I wouldn't pressure him. That didn't mean, however, that I wan't going to call Lissa to get the latest gossip on the matter.

"Okay. So what should we do now?" I asked him in an attempt to change the topic.

"I suppose you're not up for dancing." Adrian stated as he turned around to face me again. "There are private rooms in the back. I think a private dance may be in order."

Instead of responding, I reached out and punched him none too gently in the shoulder.

"Okay, okay." Adrian said holding his hands in front of him in an act of surrendering. "No dancing what-so-ever." He continued as he rubbed his now injured shoulder.

"How's Russia? I wasn't lying when I said I missed you before. The court just isn't the same without you."

"I had a rough start when I first got her. Um,- " I stopped deciding on whether I felt like talking about my incident with the Strigoi. Figuring Adrian would probably tell Lissa immediately after the dream, which would put her in panic mode and make her more worried about me, I decided it to wait until I could tell Lissa myself. "Dimitri's family has been very welcoming." _Well, except for the grandmother from hell. _

"Good, good. Where does Dimitri family live again?" Adrian asked curious although I also detected something else in his voice.

"They live in Russia. In a place called—wait, why are you so curious all of a sudden?" I asked him now becoming suspicious of his motives.

"No reason." Adrian replied with a devilish smirk. "Talk to you later, Rose."

After Adrian let go of the dream and I was allowed to return to my peacefully slumber.

It was the feeling of lips against my forehead that undoubtedly awoke me from my unconscious state.

Feeling a smile come across my lips, I said, "Mmm, more."

Without opening my eyes, I felt the person lower themselves to a sitting position on the bed next to me and begin to trail light kisses down the side of my face until they finally reached my lips. Opening my mouth, I invited him to take the intimacy of the kiss further.

Removing my hands from under the blanket, I threw them into his long silky hair, messing up the neatly placed ponytail he painstaking made in the process.

As I tried to pull his body closer to my own, I heard him moan and felt his right hand slide up the left side of my torso and come to rest at the spot next to my breast. Feeling a wave of excitement and sexual tension rush through my body all at once, I suddenly arched my hips into his none too gently.

"Rose!" Dimitri responded attempting to pull away. Or tried to since I still had a very good grip on him. "We can't."

Letting out an exasperated sigh, I allowed him to escape my grasp. "I never signed up for this celibacy." I replied grabbing a pillow and placing it over my face as my blood pressure slowly decreased.

"It's only for a few more weeks." Dimitri explained standing up from the bed.

When I still didn't respond, he continued, "Maybe it was a bad idea to kiss you."

"So now I'm not even allowed to kiss you!" I almost shouted as I ripped the pillow off my face and sat up in the bed. "Somehow, when I planned this vacation, I wasn't aware of what I would be giving up."

Trying to hold back his laughter, he said, "I'm that irresistible?"

"Nope." I replied as I stood up and climbed over the other side of the bed to look in the mirror.

As I attempted to fix my bed head, I heard Dimitri let out a burst of laughter from where I left him standing, "Is that so?" He said.

Turning around to face him, I replied, "Just so you know, I plan on making myself extremely sexy today." Then to add the finishing touch to my statement, I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Well then I better leave you here to do that." Dimitri said as he walked to the door still smiling, only now he was shaking his head at me. "I kind of like the black shirt that shows some of your cleavage. However, that might now be acceptable since we're at my family's house and all. Also, breakfast will be waiting for you downstairs." And with that, he walked out the door.

"My clothing?" I said to myself looking around the room. Last, I heard our clothes were left at the hotel when Dimitri brought me here. Dimitri said he would have them delivered but I hadn't expected it to be this soon.

Walking across the room to the suitcase, I was again made aware of my sore knee that had begun to throb again with every step I took. It hadn't bothered me at all when I jumped out of bed. I guess my body must have just been adjusting to waking up and wasn't aware of my injury quite yet. I was hoping it would have healed by the time I woke up.

Glancing at the alarm clock, I was shocked by what I saw. "Holy cow! Why am I awake this early? Ugh, Belikov's and their early bird schedule." I complained as I began to search threw my belongings to find something to wear.

I settled on a pair of well fitted worn out jeans and the black shirt Dimitri recommended only I wore a sweater jacket over it and buttoned the first button so I looked presentable. This way, I could always take the jacket off if I wanted to entice Dimitri. I also decided to leave my hair down and quickly lathered on a little bit of mascara for the finishing touch. Satisfied with my appearance, I walked out of the bedroom and headed downstairs to the kitchen. I could almost ignore the pain in my knee upstairs walking around but stairs were another problem all together. Each step reminded me of the hatred I held for Dimitri's grandmother.

When I finally made it down the stairs safely, I was regarded by Dimitri's sister Karolina who was headed out the door. "Breakfast is still out in the kitchen. Dimitri said you were a late sleeper but I didn't think it would take you this long to come down."

"For your information, this is the earliest you will probably ever see me awake." I replied.

"Oh, dear." Karolina exclaimed laughing as she said her goodbyes and walked out the door.

Walking, or attempting to walk by placing the least amount of pressure on my knee without causing attention, I made it down the hall and into the kitchen. Inside, Dimitri and his mother were in a deep conversation in Russian by the sink. My Russian wasn't particularly good, actually it was basically nonexistent, but I was able to make out something about a 'surprise.'

Stepping inside the kitchen, I accidentally hit one of the chairs and snapped Dimitri and Olena out of their conversation, shocked resided on both of their faces.

"Hey!" Dimitri said uneasily.

"Hey." I said trying to figure out why he looked so nervous.

"Karolina said there was breakfast in here." I explained trying to divert some of the awkward silence. "Please tell me you left me some food, I'm hungry." I continued, looking around the kitchen.

This jolted Olena into action, "I just put it in the fridge. I will warm it up for you."

"Oh, you don't have to. I can." I said walking over to her. As I passed Dimitri, who was frozen in the same spot, I gave him a weary look. Why was he being so weird?

"Rose, please. You're a guest in my home." Olena replied giving me a gentle smile.

"Okay, I guess." Sounding very uneasy.

Turning my direction to Dimitri, I asked, "Have you already eaten?"

"Um, yeah. I ate a while ago." He responded nervously. Usually Dimitri rarely ever allowed any emotion to across his face. The only way I was ever able to decipher them was due to our long relationship and bond. Now, looking at his face, I couldn't help but to be shocked by the amount of emotion I was seeing.

"I have to run some errands." Dimitri said abruptly pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Let me eat and we can do it together." I said turning around to see how much time was left on the microwave.

Walking over to where I stood, he bent down and kissed my forehead. "No. Stay and eat your breakfast. I won't be long." Then, he walked out of the kitchen without another reply. Seconds later, I heard the front door open and shut.

Still staring off into the hallway where Dimitri had walked out of, I wasn't aware of Olena calling my name until she reached out and gently touched my arm. "Your food in ready. Do you want to eat it here?"

"Yeah, sure." I said taking the plate from her and walking over to the kitchen table. Shortly after, Olena came over and placed two white tablets on the table next to me. I suspected they were the pain relievers. I was glad she remembered my injury from yesterday. Taking the pills with my glass of orange juice I waited idly for the effects to kick in.

Sitting in silence eating my food as Olena cleaned up behind me, I couldn't help but wonder about Dimitri's weird behavior. Just upstairs we were joking around like we always do. What could have happen? Why did he abruptly walk out the door like that? Feeling the anger build up inside of me I decided that when he got back, we will have a lot to talk about.

"This is so stupid!" I heard a male scream from outside the kitchen window.

Minutes later, a boy who looked to be about 12 to 13 years old barged through the back house door, connected to the kitchen, and slammed the door behind him.

"Paul?" Olena said now setting her cleaning sponge aside in concern.

"I'm not talking about it! If you want to know what happened, ask her." He said pointing to Karolina who was now opening the back door and walking in.

"Paul! Keep your voice down. The babies are in the other room." Karolina said sternly.

I had never seen this side of Karolina before. Karolina had been very welcoming to me and had even showed a humorous side that I didn't expect any of Dimitri's family to have. Looking at the person standing before me now was a pissed of mother who looked as though she wanted nothing more than to strangle Paul. Of course, she would never do that.

"Whatever." Paul said kicking the chair next to me and slamming his fist on the table.

"Do you mind?" I said steadying my glass of orange juice that had almost tipped over during Paul's outburst.

"Who are you?" Paul asked now allowing himself to focus on me.

"I'm the girl who is going to solve her fist in your face if you disturb her breakfast again." I replied sarcastically.

It wasn't until the entire room went quiet and all nine eyes were on me before I was aware of the fact that I had just threatened one of Dimitri's family members. Back at home, people were aware of my outburst and sarcastic personality so my threats were often times ignored. Here, they would very much be taken personally.

"Kidding." I said trying to reassure everyone that I would not be kicking Paul's ass today.

Without responding, Paul turned around and marched down the hallway.

"I was really kidding." I reaffirmed to Karolina and Olena.

"I know." Karolina reassured me.

"What happen this time?" Olena asked coming over to lay a hand on Karlona's shoulder.

"He was suspended for fighting." Karolina replied in a exasperated sigh. " I don't know what to do with that boy anymore."

"Maybe there is a reason he got into a fight." I said from the kitchen table. When nobody answered me, I turned around to face them to explain. "Cause you know…people fight in response to things."

"I haven't been able to get anything out of him. He just tells me to leave him alone." Karolina responded.

"And the school has said nothing?" Olena asked.

"Just that he attacked a fellow student and has been suspended.

"Was it a Dhampir or Moroi?" I asked.

"A fellow Moroi."

"Figures." I answered returning to my breakfast.

"Why do you say that?" Karolina asked coming over to sit next to me. "Would it be better if it was a Dhampir?"

"That's not what I meant. Moroi boys always give us Dhampirs trouble. They think they're better than us. I remember having to kick a lot of –" I stopped before I started talking about my rebellion high school years.

"You have experience with this? You can talk to him." Karolina asked looking at me pleadingly.

"What? Me?" I said pushing my chair out from under the table. "I don't even know him." I continued holding my hands up in front of me in hopes of deflecting the offer.

"You can talk to him about your own experience. Dimitri mentioned before that you were pretty tough in school. And you said it yourself. Please, Rose." Karolina pleaded with me.

"Fine." I said after a few moments. "Where is he?" I asked reluctantly.

"Front lawn." Olena responded.

'How do I get myself involved in these things?' I asked myself as I stood up from the table and placed my unfinished breakfast in the sink.

Taking one last look at Olena and Karolina's pleading faces, I set out to have my conversation with Paul.

I found Paul sitting on the front steps outside. Opening the front door, I stepped out and sat next to him.

"Nice weather out here." I said awkwardly.

"Yep." Paul said still looking out towards the road in the front of the house.

Looking around, I saw a few female neighbors outside doing lawn work and one old lady looked as though she was changing the oil in her lawn mower. 'Huh, so much for the Pleasantville image of men out cutting the grass and doing yard work. This really is a women's village.'

"Did my mom send you out her to talk to me? If so, you're wasting your time." Paul said with a matter-of-fact voice.

"Your mom sent me out here but I actually I don't want to talk to you. I was thinking I could sit out here for a while then go back in and say I couldn't break through to you."

"Cool." Was all Paul said but I could tell no one ever talked to him like I just did.

After about five minutes, Paul finally broke the silence. "Is it true what they say about you?"

"What?" I asked a little startled.

"In school, I told one of my Professors that you were dating my uncle Dimitri. He recognized your name and his. He was actually surprised by your relationship. Anyways, he said you were a 'tough little cookie.' I want to know if it is true or not?"

"I guess. Who is this Professor?" I asked curious.

"Well not Professor, Guardian I mean. Guardian Alto."

"San?" I asked shocked.

"I don't know his first name." Paul snapped. "Do you usually know your Professors by first name?"

"Yes and no. I wasn't a fan of following rules in high school so I called them by their first names." I replied still shocked to hear San's name. I wonder why he isn't still teaching at St. Vladimir.

"Did you ever get into a fight?" Paul asked turning to face me.

"I got into a lot of fights. Some for stupid reasons, some not." I responded wondering about whether I should have this conversation with a 12 year old. Then again, he did just get into a fight his self.

"I got into a fight today in school." Paul stated.

"Did you win?" I asked.

"Wwwhat?" Paul asked taken off guard.

"You know, take down your opponent. Do you take guardian classes yet?"

"No…well only the lectures about Strigoi. None of the combat training yet. That starts next year."

"So why did you get into a fight?" I asked hoping that we had made enough progress in this conversation for me to start pulling details from him. Boy, would Karolina be impressed if I can give her a detail account.

Paul looked reluctant to answer at first, "Have you ever felt the need to stick up for someone?"

"Of course. I'm a Guardian. It's my job."

"No. I mean like your family."

"Someone is picking on your family members?" I asked trying to figure out where he was going with this. The only person who was in school was Viktoria but she was in High School and I was pretty sure Paul had to be in Middle School.

"It's hard coming from..you know.. here." Paul said.

"You mean this villiage? People pick on you because if that?" I asked him. I didn't really need to know the answer to know that I guessed correctly. Before meeting Dimitri, I too had strong negative opinions about the women who lived together these villages.

"They called my family whores." Paul responded putting his hands into a fist as if he was reliving the memory.

"We both know that isn't true." I responded calmly but honestly, I was starting to get mad as well.

"Brian did. So I punched him. Do you think I made the wrong decision?"

I hesitated before I answered. I wasn't sure how to respond to the question. So, I told him what I would have done, "No. You were right to stick up for yourself. But what is wrong with you? Don't you know you need to fight in private so you don't get caught."

Instead of responding, Paul just laughed. "I'm glad uncle Dimitri found you. You are pretty cool." I also noticed that he had relaxed his fist.

"I'm glad you think so. However, just because you had a tough time in school, doesn't mean you should treat your mother poorly." I explained very confident in my answer. Dimitri would be impressed.

"I know. I don't mean to, really." Paul replied

Distracted by Dimitri's car pulling up to the house, I almost didn't respond, "You should go apologize right now."

Paul made a comment and I felt him stand up and heard the front door shut behind me but I was too distracted. Dimitri had pulled the car into the driveway and was not getting out.

As I stood up to meet him, I started to search through my memory about the list I constructed on what I was going to confront him about.

"Hey!" Dimitri called out smiling as he walked up the path to greet me carrying a bag in his right hand.

"Hey." I answered back.

From behind me, the front door creaked open a little bit and Olena stuck her head out. "Oh, Dimitri, Paul said you were back. Do you mind going into the garage and grabbing some '_Gloo be Gone'_ on the top shelf above the tools. Riley and Hannah put stickers on the living room wall."

"Sure." Dimitri replied heading towards the garage. Containing my laughter at the thought of this, I followed behind him.

"What were you talking to Paul about?"Dimitri asked after he opened the garage door and we stepped in.

"I was giving him pointers on fighting. You know, so next time he won't get caught fighting." I explained as I leaned up against the car parked inside.

The pleasant look Dimitri had been wearing now turned into disapprovement. "Rose-" Dimitri began before I cut him off.

"Did you go through the same thing in school? Getting picked on for living _here_." I asked holding my hands up to prove a point.

Dimitri looked at me with an unreadable expression for a few moments before responding, "Sometimes it is best to choose your fights wisely."

"Spoken by a true Buddha." I replied sarcastically.

Taking a deep breath, Dimitri said, "Rose, listen, Paul is 12 years old. I want him to have a good chance at school."

"He needs to stick up for what he believes in!"

"Starting random fights is only going to hurt him." Dimitri replied.

"I started random fights and I did well in school." I retorted starting to let my anger get the best of me.

"Paul isn't you." Dimitri reached out and grabbed my waist with his free hand and started to pull me to him. When I resisted and pulled away from him, he said, "Look, I don't want to start a fight with you. Just be careful about what you say to Paul. He is so young and you can unintentionally influence him even if you don't mean to." Having Dimitri explain it that way made sense. I started to feel my anger dissipate.

Before I could say something, Dimitri once again reached out and grabbed my waist. This time, I didn't try to break free. As he pulled me against his body, I felt the sexual tension return. Really what was wrong with me? You would think it was mating season or something.

"How could I possibly want to argue with you when you're wearing my favorite shirt?" Dimitri explained as he set the bag he was holding until now on the shelf behind him and moved his hand up my waist and unbuttoned the first button covering the area I felt he was concerned with most. Once my chest was free from the restraints of the button, he grazed his hand over my chest, ultimately spending a million shock waves of pleasure throughout my body.

Moving my hand up his defined chest under his shirt, our eyes both shifted to the car. "We can't." Dimitri said breathing heavy.

"Shut up." I replied capturing his mouth in a feverish kiss pushing him up against the shelf behind him until we were touching at every point in our bodies.

When I felt him groan into my mouth and twist his fingers into my hair, I knew his control was about to break. Dimitri really liked it when I took control in these kinds of situations. I knew what I was doing was driving him crazy. Now, all I needed to do was push him over the edge in hopes that he would forget this little house rule.

* * *

**Oh cliffy! Like I said, it won't be that bad this time. Update in 8 days. :) **

**Thanks for reading!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Thank you for everyone who has waited patiently for this fanfiction. I'm hoping this chapter is worth the wait. As always, thank you so much for the reviews and favorites. This has been a truly inspiring journey writing this story and I only hope it continues. :)**

**Also, I'm not sure what exactly is going on with the chapters. Chapter 6 totally disappeared. I'm not sure how that happened by oh well. Let's call this chapter number 21 for less confusion. **

* * *

**Chapter 21**

It wasn't until my shirt and bra were lying in a pile on the garage floor along with Dimitri's shirt, when I heard the garage door open.

"Dimitri." I breathed into his neck as he fondled my breast and nuzzled the spot underneath my right ear that he knew made me weak in the knees.

"Dimitri! Stop!" I said in alarm as Paul came into view from behind Dimitri in the garage doorway.

"What?" Dimitri ask me concerned, turning around in the direction I was looking.

"I—I didn't mean to interrupt—Nana sent me in here to see what the holdup was—the quicker you get the '_Gloo be Gone' _on the wall the faster the stickers will come off, she says." Paul mumbled over his words as he took the scene in before him.

I could imagine what he saw. Dimitri standing in front of me shirtless and me taking cover behind him equally shirtless as half our cloths lay in a pile on the floor between our bodies.

"So, I told you and now I will go." Paul continued his Russian accent even more pronounced do to his nervousness as he turned around to leave.

"Why didn't you stop him? I asked Dimitri smacking him in the arm as I bent over to retrieve my bra and shirt from the floor.

"He won't tell anyone." Dimitri said turning back around to face me. "At least I hope not…"

"Oh my—your grandmother is going to kill us—I mean me." I said strapping my bra on as fast as possible.

Looking at me for a few seconds as he thought about the next set of actions he finally said, "I'll take care of it." Then, he swooped down, grabbing his shirt and walked out the door after Paul.

Looking up at the ceiling, I cursed Dimitri's grandmother. If it wasn't so against the rules, then this situation would have never happened. Dimitri and I never acted this way before. Okay, maybe I was a bit more acceptable toward some PDA but Dimitri would have never allowed this situation to advance as much as it did. We were both in a state of withdrawal and I only hope it doesn't get much worse.

As If I was setting out a electromagnetic signal for her, I heard a grunt in the direction of the doorway to look up and find Yeva staring back at me.

_Great,_ I thought to myself as I looked around for a weapon to use in my defense. The lady was scary and I wasn't above claiming self-defense for survival.

Instead of giving me any trouble, she simply walked, or rather hovered as I see it, over to the counter not breaking eye contact with me as she grabbed the '_Gloo be Gone.' _Finally breaking eye contact with me, she turned around and headed back toward the door.

_She knows I was seducing Dimitri in here and now she wants to kill me,_ I thought to myself as I looked down to realize I was still standing in my bra.

"Awesome." I whispered to myself while I pulled my shirt over my head and processed out the door to find Dimitri and figure out the damage report.

When I couldn't find Dimitri in the house, I decided to look outside incase he took Paul for a walk.

To my surprise, as I was putting my coat on, the doorbell rang. Not sure if I should answer it or wait until someone in the household did, in case there was some Russian rule about that or something, I stood there until the doorbell rang again.

"Can someone get that?" I heard Olena call from upstairs.

"I will!" I called back opening the front door.

To my surprise, the person staring back at me was Maria. The lady who helped me cope with Dimitri's disappearance after the whole Strigoi fiasco.

"Maria?" I ask partly shocked as I opened the screen door to let her in.

"No." She said shaking her head when I gestured her to come into the house. "We need to talk elsewhere."

"Okay." I said a little weirded out at her being all mysterious all of a sudden. "

"Um—" She paused looking unto the house, "Can we talk —at my hotel alone?"

"Can we go for a walk?" I asked stepping outside. "

"Olena, I'm going out for a walk with someone. Tell Dimitri I'll be right back." I shouted into the house hearing Olena answering 'okay.'

"Aren't you injured?" Maria asked me noticing how I took the steps of the front porch one at a time due to my still bummed knee. "Wait, your face is healed and—"

"They fixed me up in the hospital." I said trying to change the topic. I still wasn't sure how much she knew about spirit. Maria told me she used to be a guardian but I wasn't if she would know about the spirit element. It was still new concept even two years later and I was not in the mood to explain it to her. Plus, she totally bailed on me at the hospital. "What happen to you?"

"That's what I want to talk to you about. I'd talk in a car but I'm looking for somewhere more private and I want to make you comfortable."

"You're not going to rape me are you?" I ask walking over to what I presumed was her car since it was the only vehicle in the driveway other than the one Dimitri used earlier today.

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's go."

As Maria walked over to the driver side of the car, I made sure to take in her appearance as I was too hurt to do it last time we met. Maria looked as if she was of Hispanic decent with black hair, brown eyes, and a dark complexion like my own. Before, I'd assumed she was in her early to mid fifties but now I was thinking later fifties maybe early sixties. I could see traces of gray in her pixie styles hair and worry lines and scars covering her face from what I expected were from her guardian days.

While Maria put her seat belt on and prepared to leave, I took a look around her car. Hanging from her mirror were two letters, "MH." _So her last named started with an "H" like mine,_ I pondered to myself.

"Is your hotel far? I don't have a cell phone and I know Dimitri will worry if i'm done too long."

"No. I'm staying at a place called the Peaceful Rest. It's about 20 minutes from Olena's house."

"The Peaceful Rest? You aren't trying to kill me, are you?"

Sighing like my mother does when I try to make unnecessary jokes with her, Maria continued driving without giving me any sort of response.

When we arrived at Maria's hotel, I made note that she was renting the room 205 in case, I needed to know for future reference.

"You said you had limited time to talk so I want to get straight to the point." Maria said as she took a sit on the red push couch with me in the matching recliner adjacent from her.

"I told you before that I used to be a Guardian. I want to tell you my story but I know some parts are not going to make you happy."

"You don't have to sound all melodramatic." I said under my breath. However, by the look Maria shot at me, I knew I wasn't quiet enough for her not to hear.

"When I was around your age, I suffered a terrible injury." Maria started out.

"All I wanted to do was lay in my hospital bed and feel sorry for myself. I was only 25 years old when the incident occurred. I was on a recovery mission—four royal Moroi women were out partying one night at a techno bar without their guardians when they were attacked by two Strigois in small town located in Ohio. Two of the women were instantly killed, their remains left over but the other two were taken. We were sure of it. Since they were each from royal bloodlines obviously it was of top propriety to have them safely returned to their respected families. It took around five days to track the Strigois to a shed off Route 42 a few miles shy of the Nevada border. We were surprised they had gotten so far from Ohio. Understanding that time was of the essence to retrieve them both alive, around 10 guardians were called upon immediately, myself included, to head out for a search and recovery."

Sitting up more alert, I listened to her story intently. I had been on search and rescues before so I am always willing to listen for any advice or in this case how her rescue went so bad.

"We were able to infiltrate the Strigoi base with little trouble. However, we had made the mistake of assuming that only the two Strigois would be there. You must understand, Rose. Back then it was a rarity to even find two Strigois working together. Not like today when you were attack by what, around 30 Strigois?

"40." I responded having remembered the estimate Dimitri gave me last night.

"Well that would have been flat-out impossible back then. Anyways, back to the story. There were 10 Strigois. Still a hefty number but not quite 40. I assume that even back then things were changing. Strigois were banding together."

"We were overwhelmed. There were 5 of us so 10 shouldn't have been that big of a deal but we weren't expecting the traps."

"They had built these booby- traps. They must have expected us to come after the royals. Today, I'm still trying to research where the shift of intelligence happened. It has become my life work to figure out what sparked the change in the Strigois' psychology; When they started to retain their knowledge from their former selves instead of becoming soulless, brainless pawns of what they once were."

"At one point I got separated from the others. I was running from the gun fire when I accidently fell into a hole. I could hear the explosions of gunpowder and the screaming happening above me as I felt helpless being unable to help my friends. I don't remember much else about that day, I feel it is due to the intense panic that was ripping through my body at that time."

"The next day, when everything cleared up and I could hear the Strigois talking about the kills they made. I knew I was the only survivor. I figured if I kept quiet, the Strigoi would depart from this location in search for new victims. I wasn't so lucky. Two Strigois found me in the hole and jumped in. I guess I should be lucky it was two and not all ten." Maria said stopping looking down at the carpet with a look of despair on her face. "Without any sort of weapon and having lost my stake early on in the fighting, I knew I was going to die."

Looking back up at me, she continued, "I didn't die of course. The Strigoi, whose names have been imprinted in my mind forever, were named Henry and Rupert. I won't talk about the torture I went through for the next few days but I will say by the end I was left without the ability to ever bear children or walk. You see, my right leg was ripped off leaving me crippled for life."

"Being 25 years old and not having a leg was unbearable. I felt hopeless. Being a guardian was all I knew. I had never met a one-legged guardian before. I felt as if in a blink of an eye I was left jobless and broken. I had begun to fall into a severe depression. I didn't want to live anymore."

Smiling, Maria explained, "That was when I met her. She was a nurse working at the hospital. Her name was Meredith Hathaway. She was your grandmother. I owe my life to her. She told me that I could get a prosthetic leg and even took the time out of her busy schedule to work with me on physical therapy."

"I met your mother too." Maria continued before I could even process this new information. I was learning about my—grandmother. Janine never talked about her family. Even when I asked, she always made excuses or changed the topic; Just as she did with the topic of my father."

"Meredith held a party for me when I got out of the hospital. I was more than overjoyed." Maria paused breaking eye contact with me and looking off into the distance, "I wasn't close to my family. My mother and sisters were the Dhampir girls you are warned not to be. I knew since the day I could understand what they did for money, I was going to be a guardian." Maria said a sign of pride coming through her face at the last statement.

"I never had friends because I saw them as distractions. I wanted to be the best guardian out there. An inspiration to all little girls. A way to avoid the Dhampir women stereotype."

"I want that too." I said speaking up for the first time since the beginning of the story.

"I know you do, Rose. I could tell the moment I met you. I saw your strength. You were broken, and still you kept going despite all odds against you. You remind me a lot of your grandmother." Maria said smiling at the statement in remembrance.

"Where is my grandmother? My mother—she never talks about her."

"Oh Meredith." Maria exclaimed frowning.

"She's dead isn't she?" I asked but not really wanting to know the answer. From the moment Maria said she knew my grandmother, I silently hoped she was still alive so I could meet her.

"It was an accident." Maria confirmed as my heart felt as though it dropped to the ground in disappointment. "She was crossing the street in front of the hospital when she was hit by a man, who was distracted by his pregnant wife. She was in labor and he was nervous. Took his eyes off the road for only a minute but by then it was too late."

"It was the day of the party she held for me. As I said, I was so overjoyed she had done something for me; a marvelous gift that ended in a terrible day. I remember being at the party your grandmother held for me talking to a nice lady when your grandfather came up to me. I knew from the look on his face something was wrong."

"My grandfather-" I interrupted in shocked. I couldn't believe that in less than an hour I was hearing more about my family then in my 20 years on this earth.

Smiling at my outburst in understanding, Maria continued, "His name is Charles."

"Charles-" I mumbled deciding whether or not the next part of my question would be offensive, "As in, 'he has the same name as your husband."

Taking a deep breath and placing her right hand over her mouth, she answered, "Yes."

Jumping up from the recliner I had been residing this entire time, I started to pace. "So my grandmother dies and you jump into bed with her _husband_?"

"That isn't how it was, Rose." Maria responded now standing up herself. I hadn't noticed before but I could see her limp as she closed the distance between us. "After Meredith died, Charles cracked with the pressure of raising your mother by himself. At first, I moved in to help him through the stress."

"And into his bed?" I retorted with a snort. "How long was she dead?"

"That is beside the point" Marai stated harshly raising her voice for the first time.

Closing her eyes for a few seconds then opening them she continued without the harshness, "I know how it looks to you." When I didn't respond she added, "It was 4 months later when I—how did you put it, went _into his bed_.

"You seem like a descent person, other than taking your _friend's _man." I said sitting down on the couch because my knee was starting to act up again. "Why won't my mother talk about you or—"Pausing to find a word and not quite ready to use the title he deserved, "Charles?"

"I need you to understand why Charles and I went to each other for comfort with each other. He, of course was broken hearted and overwhelmed with Janine, I was banished from ever being a guardian."

Before I could ask Maria about her last statement, she went on, "That's right, there was no place for a girl with one leg. They were concerned I wouldn't be able to defend a Morio or myself for that matter. Brought up ridiculous arguments like, 'What happens if your prosthetic leg falls off?' I was without a job or any kind of support. Charles helped me through this time in my life as much as I helped him."

Coming to sit on the couch beside me, she said, "I fell in love with Charles. I never meant for the person I loved to be my friend's husband."

"I guess I could understand that in a way in a dysfunctional kind of way. So, why does my mom not talk about you?"

"She thought I was stealing her father away. It made sense. Charles pulled away from her. I was more than willing to take the blame then let it be known that Charles was not able to deal with her."

"_Deal_ with her?"

"We put her in a border school. Charles couldn't stand to be around Janine anymore. Said she made him think of Meredith."

"I can imagine why that would be a bother. Charles would look at my mother, think of Meredith and there goes your romantic fantasies."

Glaring at me, Maria retorted, "You're exactly like Janine, jumping to conclusions. I asked Charles to send Janine away because I never wanted her to know that her father couldn't stand the sight of her anymore. You think she dislikes us now, feeling as though she was sent away so we could give our _romantic fantasies_. I can only imagine who she would have become had the truth been given to her. Maybe like my mother and sisters?"

Taking a quick inhalation of breath, I stood up and pronounced, "I think I'm done talking for today. It's late. "I continued walking to the door.

"We still have much to talk about-" Maria said getting up and walking over to me.

"Why are you telling me all this now?

"I didn't know who you were at first."

"Save it." I answered putting my hand up infront of me while twisting the door knob and opening the door with my other.

Slamming the door shut again, Maria, looking straight in my eyes, whispered, "The Strigois that hurt me are still alive. You want to know why the Strigoi are acting strange. There, is your answer. I have spent years tracking them, looking for any chance at revenge. That's why I was in St. Peterburg."

"Why should I care?"

"You haven't asked me why I'm in Baia."

"I don't care?"

"They're here. I followed them here. You should be careful. They almost killed you once. If they do it again, I may not be there to save you this time—"

"You did _not_ save me the last time." I responded rolling my eyes not afraid of her threats at all. My only concern being Dimitri's family. Could Strigoi come into the community?

"Be careful." Maria said opening the door and holding it out for me.

"Oh and Rose? I would reframe from telling your mother what we talked about."

"Whatever." I responded making my way to the elevator.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. Don't forget to show some love. **


End file.
